Tag Archives: bids and proposals

Large Business’s Unmet Subcontracting Goals Result In “Marginal” Score

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A large business was appropriately awarded a “Marginal” score for small business participation based on the large business’s history of failing to meet its small business subcontracting goals.

In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that the procuring agency properly assigned the large business a low score based on the large business’s history of unmet subcontracting goals, even though the large business apparently pledged to subcontract a significant amount of work to small businesses under the solicitation in question.

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GAO: Agency Unreasonably Failed To Consider Incumbent Employees’ Salaries

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A procuring agency unreasonably assigned an awardee an “Outstanding” score for its proposal to retain a large portion of the incumbent workforce, even though the awardee intended to offer the incumbent employees significantly lower salaries than the employees were earning on the incumbent contract.

In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that it was unreasonable for the agency to fail to consider whether the differences in compensation would affect the awardee’s ability to recruit and retain the incumbent workforce.

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GAO: 45-Minute Bid Confirmation Deadline Was Unreasonable

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A procuring agency acted unreasonably by leaving a voicemail for a winning bidder requiring confirmation of the bid within 45 minutes of the voicemail.

In a recent GAO bid protest decision, the GAO found that the winning bidder had already confirmed its bid by responding to a Bid Validation request sent by the FedBid electronic reverse auction system.  Under these circumstances, the agency’s second request for a bid validation–with a very short response time–was improper.

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Subcontracting Plan Discrepancy Proves Costly To EAGLE II Offeror

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A discrepancy in a business’s subcontracting plan may have cost the offeror its shot at a position on the enterprise acquisition gateway for leading-edge solutions II IDIQ contract.

As demonstrated in a recent GAO bid protest, the business was downgraded on the small business participation factor because of a discrepancy in its proposal regarding subcontracting with SDVOSBs.  Without the discrepancy, the large business might have landed a slot on EAGLE II.

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Proposal Re-Evaluation: Protester’s Scores Could Be Lower Than In Original Evaluation

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When a procuring agency re-evaluates proposals in response to a protest, the agency need not stick with the results of the original evaluation.

As demonstrated in a recent GAO bid protest decision, when an agency re-evaluates proposals, it is expected that the re-evaluation could result in different findings and conclusions–including new conclusions that are not favorable to the protester.

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GAO: Emailed Proposal In Agency’s Possession Was Not “Late”

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In a victory for common sense, the GAO has held that a proposal that was in the agency’s possession before the due date was not “late,” even though the offeror emailed the proposal to the agency instead of submitting it through an online portal.

The agency’s attempt to reject the proposal was particularly egregious because the agency told the protester that the proposal could be submitted by email–then rejected the proposal when the protester did just that.

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Discussions: Second Bite At The Apple Not Required, Says GAO

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An agency does not need to reopen discussions to allow an offeror to address a weakness first introduced in a revised proposal.

In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that an agency properly eliminated an offeror from the competitive range where the offeror, in a revised proposal submitted after discussions, introduced a new weakness.

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