evaluation criteria | The Contracting Education Academy

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

September 8, 2020 By cs

GAO affirms denial of protest by contractor who failed to submit an adequately written proposal

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently denied a protest brought by a contractor who failed to submit an adequately written proposal for the award of a federal contract.

In Patriot Defense Group, LLC (B-418720.3, August 5, 2020, 2020 WL 4501318), the decision breaks no new ground legally but it serves as a timely reminder of how failure to identify the assumptions upon which a proposal is based will yield a disappointing result.

The details of this case begin with the Request for Proposals (RFP).

The U.S. Special Operations Command issued a request for proposals for multiple indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts to provide a variety of professional, technical, management, and administrative services. The RFP recited that an award would be made to all “qualifying offerors,” defined as offerors that received a pass rating for administrative and responsibility matters, an acceptable rating for an IDIQ evaluation factor, and a substantial confidence rating for past performance.

Among other things, offerors were required to submit a minimum of three past performance information sheets for contracts which were relevant to each offeror’s ability to perform the work described in the RFP. Prior contracts were to be assigned past performance relevancy ratings. The RFP warned offerors that they were required to include a rationale supporting the assertion of relevance. They were also to describe in detail how the company’s past performance on each contract applies to the “relevancy criteria” identified in the RFP.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/government-contracts-procurement-ppp/982362/gao-affirms-denial-of-protest-by-contractor-who-failed-to-submit-an-adequately-written-proposal

July 10, 2020 By cs

GSA scraps $15 billion Alliant 2 small business contract

The General Service Administration (GSA) has canceled the solicitation of its $15 billion Alliant 2 Small Business governmentwide IT contract after it was plagued with protests.

That agency announced late Thursday it is “planning a new approach” for small business IT governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs) after “the federal government’s requirements have evolved and GSA recognizes the opportunity to strengthen, innovate, and better respond to changing technology needs and security threats,” it vaguely said in a release.

GSA had originally awarded the 10-year contract to 81 small businesses in 2018. But just over a year later, the agency rescinded those awards after one company’s successful bid protest — there were dozens of protests of the contract in total — and went back to evaluating bids.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/gsa-scraps-15b-alliant-2-small-business-contract/

Also see Experts Break Down GSA’s Abrupt Cancellation of $15B Small Business IT GWAC at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2020/07/experts-break-down-gsas-abrupt-cancellation-15b-small-business-it-gwac/166701/

November 14, 2019 By cs

Bid protests hit 10-year low

Companies filed 16% fewer bid protests in fiscal 2019 than the year prior.

According to data released last Thursday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), vendors filed 2,198 protests in fiscal 2019, 16% fewer than were filed in the previous year. Fiscal 2019’s total represented 22% fewer protests than GAO’s 10-year high-water mark—the 2,789 filed in fiscal 2016.

According to GAO, the agency closed 2,200 cases in fiscal 2019 and sustained 77 of the 587 total decisions decided on merit. Fiscal 2019’s 13% sustain rate—wherein GAO agrees with the bid protestor—was its lowest since fiscal 2015. A large number of bid protests are resolved when agencies agree to take corrective action rather than GAO carrying the protest to full conclusion.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2019/11/bid-protests-hit-10-year-low/161168/

August 30, 2019 By cs

NOAA, NASA launched next-gen satellite with known issues, scrubbed performance metrics from contract

The main instrument of the GOES-R next-generation satellite constellation wasn’t working before launch but officials sent it into space anyway.

Persistent problems with the premier sensors of the GOES-R series satellites — designed to provide the next generation of weather observation for North America — were identified before launch and not properly tested or resolved, according to a new inspector general report.

Further, the Commerce Department IG found evidence that program managers changed the evaluation criteria for the contractor after the issues were identified—metrics that would have led to a 40-75% reduction in payment had they remained.

The $11 billion GOES-R series of satellites includes GOES-16—launched November 2016—and GOES-17—launched March 2018—as well as the pending GOES-T and GOES-U still in production. The satellite constellation is equipped with a set of next-generation sensors to better predict weather patterns, including the Advanced Baseline Imager, or ABI, the “most essential instrument for mission success of the GOES-R satellites,” according to the IG.

However, shortly after GOES-17 entered orbit, the cooling system for the ABI instrument malfunctioned, “severely degrading” the amount of data the satellite could collect, NOAA officials said at the time.

“This is a serious problem,” Steve Volz, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, or NESDIS, said during a May 2018 briefing with reporters. “This is the premier Earth-pointing instrument on the GOES platform and the 16 channels … are important elements of our observing requirements.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/08/ig-noaa-nasa-launched-next-gen-satellite-known-issues-scrubbed-performance-metrics-contract/159276/

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

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently denied a protest brought by a contractor who failed to submit an adequately written proposal for the award of a federal contract.

The General Service Administration (GSA) has canceled the solicitation of its $15 billion Alliant 2 Small Business governmentwide IT contract after it was plagued with protests.

Companies filed 16% fewer bid protests in fiscal 2019 than the year prior.

The main instrument of the GOES-R next-generation satellite constellation wasn’t working before launch but officials sent it into space anyway.

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