“Workin’ Nine to Five” – But Not in a Government Office: Requesting a Debriefing
- In Exceptional Software Strategies, Inc ., B-416232 , the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently addressed the obscure rules for when a disappointed offeror must request a debriefing. It’s generally well known that, in procurements where offerors may have a right to debriefings, a disappointed... ›
Corporate Transactions as a Basis for Protest (Post-Award Protest Primer #18)
By: Damien C. Specht and James A. Tucker
Most corporate transactions go forward without protests. Several prominent protest decisions over the last few years, however, have drawn attention to the complicated and sometimes unpredictable effect corporate transactions can have on pending procurements. This uncertainty is exacerbated by the (often required) secrecy around... ›Unreasonableness And Lack Of Documentation (Post-Award Protest Primer #17)
By: James A. Tucker
Today’s installment of the post-award protest primer combines two frequent, related protest grounds: (1) unreasonable evaluations and source selection decisions and (2) insufficient documentation. In a future post, we’ll look more granularly at protest grounds best value tradeoffs in particular and the duties of... ›A New Bid Protest Timeliness Trap: Pre-Award Laches
By: James A. Tucker
On this blog, we frequently discuss the various timeliness traps that can undermine bid protests at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). A recent bid protest decision from the Court of Federal Claims addresses a timeliness trap that is rare and has never before been... ›Bad Faith and Biased Procurement Officials (Post-Award Protest Primer #16)
By: James A. Tucker
We previously have referred in passing to Government bad faith as a protest ground that almost never is worth raising. Today, we’ll address this rarely successful protest ground and discuss why it’s almost always a loser, as well as the rare circumstances in which... ›Procurement Integrity Act Violations (Post-Award Protest Primer #15)
By: James A. Tucker
Offerors should, and generally do, carefully guard the confidentiality of their bid and proposal information. And agencies that receive that information generally are careful to prevent its improper release, much as they guard against release of other source selection sensitive information. The Procurement Integrity... ›Bait-And-Switch And Unavailable Key Personnel (Post-Award Protest Primer #14)
By: James A. Tucker
The bait-and-switch in the salesman’s world involves enticing a prospective customer with an unbelievably good deal, only to switch it at the last moment with a bargain that is considerably less attractive to the buyer, and far more profitable for the seller. A version... ›Organizational Conflicts of Interest (Post-Award Protest Primer #13)
By: James A. Tucker
Today we’ll consider Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCIs) as a ground of protest. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) defines an OCI as a situation where “because of other activities or relationships with other persons, a person is unable or potentially unable to render impartial assistance... ›Discussions Vs. Clarifications Vs. Communications, and Agency Discretion (Post-award Protest Primer #12)
By: James A. Tucker
In our last post, we looked at the most common protest grounds related to discussions: lack of meaningful discussions, misleading discussions, and unequal discussions. Today we’ll discuss how discussions differ from clarifications and pre-competitive range communications, as well as the Government’s discretion to conduct... ›Non-meaningful, Misleading, and Unequal Discussions (Post-award Protest Primer #11)
By: James A. Tucker
Today’s post is the first of two installments on protest grounds related to discussions. This post will focus on the requirement that discussions be meaningful and not misleading, and treat offerors equally. The next post will look at the difference between discussions and other types of... ›