Tag Archives: Organizational Conflicts of Interest

GAO: Agency Cannot Ignore Apparent Conflict

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When a procuring agency knows of an apparent organizational conflict of interest, but makes no effort to resolve the issue, the resulting award is improper.

In a recent GAO bid protest decision, GAO held that it is impermissible for an agency to simply ignore a known conflict (or apparent conflict).  Interestingly, GAO never determined whether the conflict helped or hurt the business’s efforts at winning the award. It said essentially that it did not matter. Because a conflict existed, the agency knew about it, and did nothing, the award was flawed.

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GAO: No OCI Where Information Wasn’t Competitively Useful

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Access to corporate information on another contract will not result in an information organizational conflict of interest when the information accessed is not competitively useful to the present solicitation.

As a bid protester recently discovered in DV United, LLC, B-411620, B-411620.2 (Sept. 16, 2015), the mere fact that the successful offeror had access to one of its team member’s information on another government contract did not result in an information organizational conflict of interest because the information was not competitively useful.

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VA CVE SDVOSB Verification Contractor Eliminated For OCI

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An incumbent contractor performing VA CVE SDVOSB verification functions was ineligible to be be re-awarded an order for those services because of an unmitigated organizational conflict of interest.

In a recent decision, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims upheld the VA’s decision to cancel the award to the incumbent contractor and exclude that contractor from the follow-on order.

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Mystery, Intrigue and OCIs: Anonymous Source Sinks Contractor’s Bid

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It sounds more like a scene from “All the President’s Men” than the factual background of a GAO bid protest.  In McTech Corporation, B-406100, B-406100.2 (Feb. 8, 2012), an anonymous caller tipped off a procuring agency that McTech had an apparent organizational conflict of interest, leading to McTech’s exclusion from the competition.  The resulting GAO bid protest didn’t bring down a presidential administration, but it does provide a cautionary tale on the intersection of SBA mentor-protégé agreements and OCIs.

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OCIs and Former Government Employees: GAO Finds Agency Properly Excluded Contractor

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When it comes to hiring former government employees, criminal law prohibits certain conduct (like attempting to hire a contracting officer who is currently evaluating your proposal).  But just because a hire meets the letter of the law does not mean that it won’t cause an organizational conflict of interest, or OCI.

That’s exactly what happened in the GAO’s decision in TeleCommunication Systems, Inc., B-404496.3 (Oct. 26, 2011)–and it cost a contractor an award.

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Generic OCI Mitigation Plan Torpedoes Contractor’s Award

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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.

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