Tag Archives: bid protests

Protester Hits the Trifecta: Bid Protest Sustained, Denied, and Dismissed

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GAO issued a bid protest decision that sustained a protest in part, dismissed it in part, and denied it in part. Contractors can learn from this that even if all the arguments do not work, all it takes is one.

High Noon Unlimited, Inc. protested the U.S. Marine Corps decision to buy rifle magazine pouches off High Speed Gear, Inc. There was a large difference in price between the two offerors, with High Noon offering approximately $2.2 million while High Speed charged just under $3.6 million.

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GAO Green Lights Use of IGCE in Past Performance Evaluation

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Internal Government Cost Estimates (IGCEs) are frequently used to gauge the reasonableness of contractor prices during proposal evaluation. But can these internal estimates also impact other evaluation factors? GAO was recently asked to resolve this question in the context of past performance evaluations, and the answer was essentially “you sure can!”

Alright, GAO wasn’t that enthusiastic, but it did condone the use of IGCEs when evaluating past performance.

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Error in Table of Contents Dooms Proposal

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By now, our frequent readers are familiar with GAO’s mantra that it is an offeror’s responsibility to submit a well-written proposal that complies with the solicitation’s requirements and risks being found unacceptable if it fails to do so.

That rule serves its purpose: it helps maintain an organized bidding process, under which the agency can evaluate proposals on an even footing. But it can also lead to harsh results, like it did in a recent protest challenging a proposal’s unacceptability due to its non-compliant table of contents.

Let’s take a look.

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What’s the Purpose of a Bid Protest? Section 809 Panel Suggests An Answer

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Counseling clients and prospective clients on a potential bid protest, we often ask: Why would you like to file this protest? Of course, the answer inevitably involves the discussion of a flaw (or several) in the evaluation process that, had they not been committed, would have resulted in a different award decision.

In its latest report, the Section 809 Panel offers another consideration: Will this protest ensure confidence in the acquisition system?

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GAO: Bid Protests Must Be Timely Received Through EPDS

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When it comes to timely filing a bid protest, government contractors should keep one overriding principle in mind: late is late, and it probably won’t matter why the protest wasn’t timely received.

GAO recently reaffirmed this principle when it dismissed a bid protest that wasn’t timely received by its new, mandatory Electronic Protest Docketing System.

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Bid Protest Report Gives Insight into COFC Protests

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When we write about bid protest decisions on SmallGovCon, odds are that we’re writing about a GAO decision. For good reason: GAO is the most common forum protesters bring bid protests.

But SmallGovCon readers also know there’s another possible forum for protests: the Court of Federal Claims.

The GAO publishes an annual bid protest report with statistics about the number and effectiveness rate of protests, among other things. But until very recently, we didn’t have much hard data about the frequency and efficacy of COFC protests. The recently-released RAND bid protest report changed that, by including a deep dive on DoD bid protests at COFC.

Let’s take a look.

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