Tag Archives: IDIQs

GAO: Task Order Discussions Must Identify Weaknesses

Posted on by

An agency must identify weaknesses or deficiencies in an offeror’s proposal when the agency conducts discussions as part of a task order competition, according to a recent GAO bid protest decision.

In Mission Essential Personnel, LLC, B-407474, B-407493 (Jan. 7, 2013), the GAO held that a procuring agency erred by failing to inform an offeror of two weaknesses or deficiencies in its proposal.  The GAO concluded that discussions must include this information even when the procurement is a task order competition conducted under FAR part 16.

Continue reading →

GAO Task Order Jurisdiction: “Scope” Exception Is Narrow

Posted on by

As I have previously written, the GAO lacks authority to hear bid protests of task orders valued at less than $10 million, except if the protester can show that the order increases the scope, period, or maximum value of the contract against which the order was issued.

In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that the “scope” exception applies only if the task order changes the underlying scope of work–denying the protester’s argument that any task order that is not evaluated in accordance with the contract’s requirements necessarily goes beyond the contract’s scope.

Continue reading →

The FAR’s Limitations on Subcontracting and IDIQ Contracts

Posted on by

Here’s a question I get with some frequency: “do I have to comply with the FAR’s subcontracting limitations for every task or delivery order?”  You will be happy to learn that the GAO, at least, has answered this question “no.”

Although the FAR Limitations on Subcontracting clause, FAR 52.219-14, does not address IDIQs, task or delivery orders, the GAO has held that the subcontracting limitation FAR clause “applies to the contract as a whole and does not require that each delivery order placed under the contract satisfy the requirements of the clause.”  Spectrum Security Servs., Inc., B-297320.2 (Dec. 29, 2005).  According to the GAO in the Spectrum Security Services bid protest, the “contract as a whole” means that where a solicitation provides for the price evaluation of base and option years, the entire contract—both base and all priced options—will be reviewed to determine whether the offer complies with the subcontracting limits.

Continue reading →

GAO: Agencies May Request Size Recertification on Long-Term IDIQs

Posted on by

Ordinarily, a business is “small” for purposes of a set-aside government contract if it falls below the applicable size standard (determined by NAICS code) on the date of its initial offer.  The same policy holds true on long-term indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts: if a business is small for the initial IDIQ award, it is small for subsequent task orders—unless the procuring agency asks for recertification, and the contractor has grown in the interim.

Continue reading →