An agency cannot make material changes to a solicitation after selecting a contractor for award without going back and giving all offerors the opportunity to compete on the revised solicitation. In Diebold, Inc., B-404823 (June 2, 2011), the GAO sustained a bid protest because the agency failed to allow the protester to compete on the revised solicitation.
Category Archives: GAO Bid Protests
GAO bid protest decisions, commentary on GAO bid protest regulations, and related topics.
GAO: SDVOSBs Preferred Over Veteran-Owned Businesses for VA Procurements
Unlike most agencies, the Department of Veterans Affairs offers contracting preferences for businesses owned by veterans who are not service-disabled. However, as the GAO confirmed in Buy Rite Transport, B-403729, B-403768 (Oct. 15, 2010), even at the VA, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses are preferred over veteran-owned small businesses.
GAO Sustains Another “Unreasonably Restrictive Solicitation” Bid Protest
If a government solicitation contains a term that is unreasonably restrictive of competition, you may be able to successfully protest the matter to the GAO, which has sustained a number of such bid protests. The GAO’s decision in Missouri Machinery & Engineering Co., B-403561 (Nov. 18, 2010) is a good example of a successful GAO bid protest based on an unreasonably restrictive solicitation term.
Generic OCI Mitigation Plan Torpedoes Contractor’s Award
OCI mitigation plans are one of the most common ways for contractors to address any actual, potential or apparent organizational conflicts of interest that could arise if the contractor won the award. For busy contractors, it’s tempting to simply cobble together a generic OCI mitigation plan, perhaps borrowing liberally from whatever questionable websites pop up in a Google search. But as one contractor discovered in a GAO bid protest decision, an insufficient OCI mitigation plan can lead to very bad results.
Army Rejects Large Prime’s Proposal For Failing to Commit to Small Business Subcontracting
For small government subcontractors, here’s some good news from the U.S. Army. In a recent GAO bid protest decision, the Army eliminated a proposal from consideration because the prime contractor appeared to ignore the small business subcontracting requirement—and the GAO denied the prime’s GAO bid protest.
GAO Bid Protests: Email Filings Must Use Correct Address
If there’s anything worse than losing a GAO bid protest, it’s losing a GAO protest on a technicality.
One of the many conveniences GAO offers protesters is the ability to file protest-related documents by email. But protesters must timely file their documents at the email address provided under the GAO’s regulations—protests@gao.gov–or their filings will be disregarded. As one protester learned the hard way, even emailing the document to the individual email address of the GAO attorney deciding the protest isn’t a substitute for using protests@gao.gov.
Large Contractor Downgraded for Inadequate Subcontracting Plan
Many contractors, large and small, will tell you that the government is taking its small business obligations seriously these days. The renewed emphasis on small business can be seen not only at the prime contracting level, where we are finally getting close to the 23% government-wide goal, but also at the subcontracting level.
Contracting agencies are closely scrutinizing large businesses’ subcontracting plans for small and disadvantaged businesses. Case in point: the agency evaluation in L-3 STRATIS, B-404865 (June 8, 2011).