Over the years, we’ve written a fair number of blogs about how contractors have been either too early or too late to protest. What we haven’t blogged about is a situation where a contractor is premature and late. Unfortunately for one protester, GAO has recently confirmed that you can, indeed, be both too early and too late to protest.
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An Agency’s Broken Promise is Not GAO’s Problem
GAO recently dismissed a challenge to the terms of a solicitation—even though those terms directly contradicted the procuring agency’s promise made during a prior protest of the solicitation. Is that right? Let’s take a look.
Continue readingAgency Must Consider Price Before Eliminating a Contractor from Competitive Range, GAO Confirms
In theory, best value procurements provide the government with an opportunity to select a higher priced proposal where the higher price is justified by the technical superiority of the proposal. In practice, though, the technical factors of a best value procurement can seemingly relegate price to a secondary consideration.
In a recent decision, however, GAO confirmed that price is an essential evaluation consideration in any best-value decision.
Continue readingBiggest Loser: GAO Dismisses Marines’ Reconsideration Request on Magazine Pouch Weight
A few months ago, we blogged on a sustained GAO decision that concluded the Marines had failed to evaluate offerors in accordance with the Solicitation. Specifically, GAO identified issues with the evaluations of offeror samples, and recommended that the Marines reevaluate offerors. In the wake of GAO’s decision, the Marines filed a request for reconsideration.
Unfortunately, the Marines request did not comply precisely with GAO’s filing procedures, resulting in a dismissal.
Continue readingReasonable Cost is not Always Realistic Cost
GAO sustained a protest recently where the agency seemed to think that a reasonable cost was also a realistic cost.
That is not necessarily so.
Continue readingCorrective Action Following Dismissal Request Doesn’t Mean Protester Gets Costs Reimbursed, Says GAO
While GAO’s bid protest process is designed to achieve the laudable goal of providing a less costly process for procurement disputes, pursuing a GAO protest is nevertheless expensive. To offset these expenses, successful GAO protesters may be reimbursed for some of their expenses incurred pursuing a protest.
But what constitutes a successful protest that would entitle a protester to costs? In a recent request, GAO concluded that successfully defending against a motion to dismiss was not enough to entitle a party to costs, despite the fact that the agency subsequently took corrective action.
Continue readingIt’s Not Up to Agency to Clarify Layout and Printing Errors in Proposals, Says GAO
It is well understood that offerors must submit proposals that meet the procuring agency’s requirements, including any page limitations set by the solicitation. But what if an offeror’s proposal contains an obvious layout and printing error that inadvertently puts required information outside the established page limits? Does the agency have a duty to seek clarifications or allow corrections?
GAO says no.
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