Category Archives: GAO Bid Protests

GAO bid protest decisions, commentary on GAO bid protest regulations, and related topics.

Subcontractors And Past Performance: What Are The Risks?

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Inexperienced small government contractors sometimes rely primarily (or completely) on larger subcontractors to boost their past performance scores.  Although this practice sometimes results in better past performance scores, there are two risks small government contractors should be aware of when it comes to relying on a subcontractor’s past performance: poor evaluations and ostensible subcontractor affiliation.

A recent GAO bid protest decision, coupled with a decision of the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals, demonstrates how each risk may affect a small government contractor.

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Proposal Ambiguity Torpedoes Contractor’s Bid

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Sometimes, unintentional ambiguities can lead to a few laughs.  One website, for instance, reports funny ambiguous newspaper headlines, such as “Kids Make Nutritious Snacks” and “Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant.”

When it comes to bids and proposals, however, ambiguities are no laughing matter.  As one contractor discovered in a recent GAO bid protest decision, a procuring agency may reject a contractor’s bid if it contains an ambiguity regarding a material solicitation requirement.

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GAO: Agencies Must Consider SDVOSB Set-Asides Before Issuing Small Business Set-Aside RFPs

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One day back when I was in fourth grade, my teacher informed our class that Thomas Jefferson had never been a United States president.  I marched to the back of the classroom, pulled out the Encyclopedia Britannica, and quickly proved that Mr. Jefferson had, in fact, served in our nation’s highest office, leading to a chorus of laughter among the fourth graders of Winship Elementary.  After all, it’s rather amusing to find out that the person in charge got it wrong.  (No wonder my teacher never liked me very much after that stunt).

In a recent GAO bid protest decision, both the procuring agency and the SBA initially got it wrong, too, by erroneously relying on outdated regulations to argue that the agency need not consider a SDVOSB set-aside before awarding a small business set-aside contract.  Fortunately for SDVOSBs, the GAO set matters straight.

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GAO: Agency’s SBIR Phase III Decision Not Protestable

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A procuring agency’s decision not to enter into a Small Business Innovation Research program phase III funding agreement cannot be protested to the GAO in most cases, according to a recently-released GAO bid protest decision.

In Complere, Inc., B-406553 (June 25, 2012), NASA awarded Complere SBIR phase I and phase I research contracts.  After the phase II contract concluded, Complere submitted an unsolicited phase III proposal, which NASA did not accept–electing instead to do its own research on the topic in-house.  Complere filed a GAO bid protest, alleging that NASA had acted improperly.

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GAO Protests: Unfair “Pop Quiz” Leads to Sustain Decision

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My least favorite college class was a physics course, supposedly for non-majors, which I took only to meet my graduation requirements.  One week, we spent a great deal of class time going over some rather complex material in the main textbook.  The following week, the professor gave a pop quiz–on completely different material, which I (along with many of my classmates) had not read very closely.  Needless to say, I thought the whole thing was rather unfair.

A recent GAO bid protest decision brought back those unpleasant memories.  In Rocamar Engineering Services, Inc., B-406514 (June 20, 2012), an agency gave an extra test to an unprepared contractor–and only that contractor.  Fortunately, unlike my grade in that physics course, the result of this unfair pop quiz was overturned, by way of a sustained GAO protest.

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Discussions: Who Needs ‘Em?

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The Canadian band Barenaked Ladies (if my blog readership spikes today, I will suspect it’s from folks seeking something else by Googling that term) have a song called “Who Needs Sleep?”  As the father of a 10-month old, the chorus–“Who needs sleep?  Well you’re never gonna get it”–describes my life pretty accurately.

If BNL had been singing about federal procurements instead of slumber, the band might have used a similar chorus: “Who needs discussions?  Well you’re never gonna get ’em.”  As a pair of recent GAO bid protest decisions demonstrate, there is generally no requirement that a procuring agency engage in discussions with offerors, and it’s evident why many agencies avoid them: discussions remain fertile ground for sustained GAO bid protests.

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GAO Confirms: AbilityOne Trumps SDVOSB for VA Set-Asides

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The VA has been on the receiving end of a number of GAO bid protest decisions, the most recent issued just a few weeks ago, holding that the VA is acting illegally by ordering off the Federal Supply Schedule without first determining whether the procurement at issue can be set-aside for service-disabled veteran owned small businesses.  But the GAO’s recommendations, and the outrage from the veteran community (which, in my opinion, is very well-deserved), have not stopped the VA from pushing ahead with its “FSS First” acquisition strategy.

Now, the VA has pushed SDVOSBs even further toward the back of the line.  The VA has determined that the Javits-Wagner-O’Day, or JWOD Act, which calls for agencies to make certain purchases from nonprofits listed by the Committee for Purchase for People who are Blind or Severely Disabled (also known as the “AbilityOne” program), trumps SDVOSB set-asides for items on the Committee’s list.

And this time, the VA agrees with the GAO.

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