An agency’s fear of construction bid bonds can become problematic and cause contractors to file a GAO protest. Bid bonds for construction guarantees are forms of security that ensure that a bidder will not withdraw its bid within the period specified for acceptance and, if required, will execute a written contract and… Read more »
By: Leanna Ajour, Esq. California & Colorado Attorney In addition to overseeing the procurement process, the bid protest process at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) oversees how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars. Among other duties, the GAO fulfills this role by investigating allegations of improper actions in solicitations… Read more »
Unduly restrictive solicitation under the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984 can make your government proposal writing efforts more difficult if you don’t understand your rights to protest the Agency’s solicitation. Many government contractors may choose to simply respond to the request for proposal as is without considering whether it is too restrictive…. Read more »
Can the agency use an undisclosed independent government cost estimate (IGCE FAR) to evaluate your proposal? Take a more meaningful approach hen challenging the government contract price estimations and source selection methods. In previous GAO bid protest rulings, it has made it clear that an agency must give enough information… Read more »
How to Avoid Costly Contractor Teaming Agreement Mistakes in a Bid Protest When submitting a government proposal, you may choose to submit a contractor teaming agreement to show evidence of relationships with another subcontractor. Yet, a question arises in a bid protest whether your teaming agreements were sufficiently evaluated by the Source Selection… Read more »
Understanding how to navigate LPTA evaluation criteria mistakes can allow you to get a second bite at the apple. Lowest Price Technically Acceptable, lowest price technically acceptable evaluation factors are commonplace when it comes to federal procurement and litigating FAR protests. A common mistake made by contractors when litigating bid protest cases… Read more »
It is common practice in federal government proposal writing process for you to meet FAR small business subcontracting plan requirements (FAR 52.219-9)or, in the most recent cases, small business participation plans. The question is how do you write one that withstands bid protest scrutiny or potentially gets higher scores than your… Read more »
Theodore P. Watson, Esq. When it comes to the famous limitations on subcontracting rules under FAR 52.219 and 13 CFR 125.6, small businesses find themselves making disastrous mistakes when they use a teaming partner or named subcontractor when bidding on federal government contracts. Many companies lose federal contracts due to… Read more »
The SBA Ostensible Subcontractor Rule is a potent sword used to extinguish contract awards to government contractors. Small businesses must be extremely careful when submitting proposals that intend to use incumbent employees. This can be fertile ground for an SBA size appeal under the Ostensible Subcontractor Rule. The SBA Ostensible… Read more »
If you are filing a GAO bid protest because of a dispute about your proposal past performance evaluations, you should first understand that as a general rule contracting agencies have wide discretion to evaluate proposals based upon their own independent judgment. However, a protest lawyer that shows that the agency’s evaluation scoring… Read more »