Back to Basics: Price Realism vs. Price Reasonableness

As part of federal contracting, the total price of each award is disclosed. This is of course a great way to promote trust and transparency in federal contracting and in the handling of taxpayer dollars. But it also leads to other contractors scrutinizing an awardee’s price and thinking one of two things: (1) “That price is too low to do this work”; or (2) “that price is too high for this work.” Naturally contractors will consider protesting on one of those pricing intuitions, but often mix up how to properly frame or phrase that pricing concern. Thus, they find themselves at the crossroad of “price realism” vs. “price reasonableness.” This installment of our Back to Basics series will help you learn which is which and why that matters.

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