Just how bad are debriefings?
Pretty bad and possibly getting worse.
That’s the general conclusion of Washington Technology’s Insider Report on post-award debriefings and bid protests.
As the findings show, poor debriefings often lead to bid protests. So while bid protests often are criticized, they are really a symptom of a problem and not the main problem.
Generally, companies don’t want to protest. The research showed that a nearly three-quarters felt protests damaged the long-term relationship, but nearly the same percentage said they would protest again.
That tells us how important quality debriefings are. Companies want is to hear from their customers how their proposal fell short. This kind of feedback can change how companies do business, what kind of solutions they develop and even who they team with.
Keep reading this article at: https://washingtontechnology.com/blogs/editors-notebook/2018/10/debriefing-special-report.aspx
The deal was unusual not just for the extraordinarily high price tag, but for how it was handled. Instead of following traditional, competitive procurement rules, officials used something called a “production other transaction agreement” crafted by the Pentagon’s innovation outpost, the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx). This essentially allowed the department to make the award based on the success of a prototype developed by REAN Cloud, thus bypassing the government’s expensive and time-consuming traditional procurement process. It was 
GAO determined that the US Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) both: (a) failed to properly provide for a follow-on production contract in its initial “prototype OTA” instrument, and (b) issued its sole-source production order before the prototype was complete, in violation of the requirements of the statute that provides OTA.
But a recent Court of Federal Claims (CFC) decision offers an important reminder that these types of contracts are not inviolate. They can be successfully protested themselves when the need to sole-source arises from a lack of advance planning on the part of the agency.
