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January 13, 2021 By cs

Don’t rely on automatic email response, GAO decision warns

Agencies commonly ask offerors to designate a point of contact for communications about the proposal.  But what happens if the person the offeror identifies is unavailable when the agency reaches out?

A recent GAO bid protest decision is a cautionary tale and suggests some best practices for offerors.

The GAO’s decision in Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc., B-418946 (Oct. 23, 2020) involved a Navy RFQ seeking two clinical chemistry/immunoassay laboratory analyzer systems and one laboratory automation system, to provide laboratory testing of patient specimens at the Naval hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

In December 2019, Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. submitted a quotation.  In its quotation, Ortho-Clinical identified its Contract Manager as the company’s sole point of contact for any communications regarding the quotation.

The Navy received initial quotations from five companies, including Ortho-Clinical. After reviewing initial quotations, the Navy found that none of them, including Ortho-Clinical’s, were technically acceptable.  The Navy elected to open discussions with all five companies to allow them to address the shortcomings in their initial quotations.

Keep reading this article at: https://smallgovcon.com/gaobidprotests/proposal-points-of-contact-dont-rely-on-automatic-email-response-gao-decision-warns/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: bid protest, GAO, Navy, POC, protest, quotation, RFQ

January 12, 2021 By cs

Majority of FY20 protests find some success at GAO

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released its Annual Report to Congress summarizing bid protest activity for Fiscal Year 2020.

The report shows that, in a unique year where COVID-19 altered procurement practices and priorities, protest activity at GAO was remarkably stable.  Of note, GAO’s “effectiveness rate” this year topped 50 percent, meaning most protests resulted in some form of relief.  The number of task order protests continues to increase, despite a modest dip in overall protests.  Unsurprisingly, again there were very few hearings.

The chart below summarizes the GAO protest statistics from FY 2015 to FY 2020.

Keep reading this article at: https://governmentcontractsnavigator.com/2020/12/29/majority-of-fy-2020-protests-find-some-success-at-gao/

See the GAO’s full report here: https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-21-281SP

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: bid protest, dispute, evaluation criteria, GAO, proposal evaluation, protest, selection criteria, technical evaluation

September 22, 2020 By cs

Why the Pentagon’s JEDI saga is far from over

The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure procurement may be grounded until at least February, according to a new timeline agreed to by the government and Amazon Web Services. 

On September 4, the Defense Department awarded Microsoft its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure  cloud contract for a second time, concluding — amid a legal protest filed by Amazon Web Services—that Microsoft’s bid again represented “the best value to the government.”

Yet JEDI remains under a court-ordered injunction first issued in April, shelving any work under the contract until AWS’ protest is resolved. On Sept. 15, the Defense Department submitted—under seal—the source selection documentation it used to re-award the JEDI contract to Microsoft. The move formally concludes nearly five months of time that the Pentagon requested from Federal Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith to correct the JEDI procurement, and represents a significant step to potentially lifting the injunction.

“If there is an injunction imposed by the court, nothing can move forward,” Stan Soloway, president and CEO of Celero Strategies and a former Defense Department acquisition official, told Nextgov. “But, even if a protest is still in play, theoretically the government could declare an urgent need and proceed.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/09/why-pentagons-jedi-saga-far-over/168516/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Amazon, award protest, AWS, bid protest, cloud, cloud computing, cloud service provider, COFC, Court of Federal Claims, DoD, DOJ, JEDI, Justice Dept., Microsoft, national security, Pentagon, protest, rebid, restraining order

September 9, 2020 By cs

Pentagon awards JEDI cloud contract to Microsoft for the second time

The decision follows a months-long legal challenge filed by Amazon Web Services.

The Pentagon awarded its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud computing contract Friday to Microsoft.

The decision follows a 10-month legal battle initiated by Amazon Web Services after the Pentagon selected Microsoft in October 2019 for the contract, worth up to $10 billion over the next 10 years if all options are exercised.

The award comes after numerous controversies and delays for JEDI — in addition to four legal protests filed by companies once in the running for it — that has the contract two years behind schedule.

“The Department has completed its comprehensive re-evaluation of the JEDI Cloud proposals and determined that Microsoft’s proposal continues to represent the best value to the government,” the department said in a statement Friday.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/09/pentagon-awards-jedi-cloud-contract-microsoft-second-time/168259/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Amazon, award protest, AWS, bid protest, cloud, cloud computing, cloud service provider, COFC, Court of Federal Claims, DoD, DOJ, JEDI, Justice Dept., Microsoft, national security, Pentagon, protest, rebid, restraining order

August 18, 2020 By cs

Pentagon requests more time to review JEDI cloud contract bids

The Defense Department says it wants to further discuss Microsoft’s and Amazon Web Services’ pricing.

In a court filing on Aug. 10th, the Defense Department requested a 30-day extension to issue an award decision in its multibillion-dollar Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract.

The Defense Department had planned to award JEDI by Aug. 17 after numerous delays, including a 120-day remand sought by the agency in March to take corrective action on issues identified in a legal protest by Amazon Web Services after the Pentagon initially awarded Microsoft the contract in October.

“During the remand, DoD has identified areas of concern with respect to the revised proposals received from both offerors, resulting in multiple solicitation amendments, rounds of proposal revisions, and exchanges with the offerors,” the filing states. “In evaluating each offeror’s final proposal revisions, however, DoD has recently identified the need to reopen limited discussions related to certain aspects of the offerors’ pricing proposals.”

The filing indicates both companies would have another chance to submit questions and a revised bid.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/08/pentagon-requests-more-time-review-jedi-cloud-contract-bids/167599/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Amazon, award protest, AWS, bid protest, cloud, cloud computing, cloud service provider, COFC, Court of Federal Claims, DoD, DOJ, JEDI, Justice Dept., Microsoft, national security, Pentagon, protest, rebid, restraining order

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