CMMC continues to be in the news as the government ramps up the process to start requiring contractors to be compliant with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification. In this video, I remind contractors why CMMC is so important.
Tag Archives: solicitation terms
Special Operations or Paint Ball? Protester Argues Solicitation is Ambiguous
Solicitations are intended to provide contractors with sufficient information about an agency’s needs to compete intelligently for government awards. In a recent procurement for special operations forces training facilities, one bidder alleged the solicitation provided so little detail that the solicited site “might just as well be a thrown-together paintball site for teenage birthday parties.”
Clearly in no mood to party, GAO denied the protest, taking the agency at its word that its requirements were minimal.
Continue readingNo Award for Proposal Lacking Required Letter of Commitment, Says GAO
GAO recently sustained a challenge to an agency’s award decision where the awardee failed to provide a required letter of commitment for an individual proposed for a key personnel position. GAO said that the awardee failed to satisfy a material solicitation requirement, making the agency’s award improper.
Continue readingDOD will Require Cybersecurity Certification Starting Fall 2020
It’s not too soon to start thinking about those New Year’s resolutions. Along with other personal goals, federal contractors might want to add a cybersecurity resolution to their list. The Department of Defense has drafted a cybersecurity certification that will be finalized in January 2020. Starting next fall, contractors will have to be certified in order to submit proposals on defense solicitations.
Read on for some of the highlights.
Continue reading5 Things You Should Know: Pre-Award Bid Protests
Editor’s note: For more information, check out our updated post on Pre-Award Bid Protests.
Small businesses often search for ways to increase their competitiveness for federal government contracts. A sometimes overlooked method is to try to better define the procurement’s requirements in a manner that improves a firm’s chances of being awarded the contract, through a pre-award bid protest.
Here are five things you should know about pre-award protests:
Continue readingGAO: Conversion of Sealed Bid to Negotiated Procurement Doesn’t Cure Untimely Protest
As seasoned government contractors know, an impropriety in a solicitation’s terms must be protested before the deadline to submit an offer. If the protest is submitted after the solicitation’s response deadline, the protest will be dismissed as untimely.
GAO recently held that this rule holds true when an agency converts a sealed bid (under FAR part 14) to a negotiated procurement (under FAR part 15).
Continue readingShort Procurement Deadline? GAO says it Doesn’t Impact Protest Timing Rules
As anyone in the federal contracting line of work knows, deadlines come at you fast and hard. In a recent GAO decision, GAO refused to relax the timeliness rules associated with protests of solicitation requirements, even where that left the contractor with very little time to protest.
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