Bad Faith and Biased Procurement Officials (Post-Award Protest Primer #16)
- 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... ›Rare Federal Circuit Protest Decision Affirms Agency Discretion in Sole Source Context
By: J. Alex Ward
Last week, the Federal Circuit issued a rare opinion on a bid protest in Agustawestland North America, Inc. v. United States. Bid protest decisions by the Court of Federal Claims are seldom appealed by protesters because the ability to get a meaningful remedy quickly... ›DOD Protest Reform: Initial Thoughts on the Congressionally-Mandated RAND Report
By: James A. Tucker
The RAND Corporation’s much-awaited report assessing bid protests of Department of Defense (DOD) procurements is out. The report fulfills a Congressional mandate in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2017 to analyze a variety of issues relating to protests of DOD acquisitions. The... ›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... ›Unstated Evaluation Criteria And Waived Solicitation Requirements (Bid Protest Primer #10)
By: James A. Tucker
This week we’ll discuss two protest arguments that are, in some ways, two sides of the same coin: unstated evaluation criteria and waived or relaxed solicitation requirements. In each, the focus of the protest is on what was required (or not required) by the... ›Latent Ambiguities and Non-Apparent Solicitation Defects (Post-Award Protest Primer #9)
By: James A. Tucker
Having discussed protest grounds you cannot or should not raise ( here and here ), we turn now to the first in a series of grounds that could result in a sustained protest: Latent Ambiguities and Non-Apparent Solicitation Defects. We’ve previously noted the rule... ›