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November 15, 2018 By AMK

GAO reiterates that agencies must meaningfully consider price in ‘best value’ tradeoffs

In three related bid protest decisions made public in the last few weeks, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reaffirmed the principle that agencies must meaningfully consider price when making best value tradeoff decisions. 

GAO sustained the protests, stressing that merely paying lip service to price while selecting a more expensive, higher-rated offeror is not sufficient — agencies must provide a rational explanation for why they have decided to pay a premium for the awardee’s technical superiority.

In Solers, Inc., B-414672.3 et al.; Technatomy Corporation, B-414672.5; and OGSystems, LLC, B-414672.6 et al., three disappointed offerors challenged the Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) award of Multiple Award Task Order contracts to 14 contractors as part of the Systems Engineering, Technology, and Innovation program.

The solicitation provided that DISA would make award on a best-value tradeoff basis considering price and four technical factors that, when combined, were significantly more important than price.  The agency made award to the 14 highest rated proposals in the non-price factors, opining — without elaboration — that “the technical merit of those proposals justifies paying a price premium over lower-rated, lower-priced proposals.”  Indeed, throughout the evaluation process, the agency repeatedly noted — again without elaboration — that the awardees’ proposals were worth a premium.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2018/11/hey-big-spender-gao-reiterates-that-agencies-must-meaningfully-consider-price-in-best-value-tradeoffs/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: best value, DISA, evaluation criteria, evaluation factor, GAO, multiple award contract, price, selection criteria, trade off

March 5, 2018 By AMK

GAO sustains protest of $771 million Defense Intelligence Agency contract

The Defense Intelligence Agency should consider re-competing a $771 million information technology task order it awarded to a company called The Buffalo Group last year, a government auditor said Feb. 21, 2018.

The contracting giant ManTech Advanced Systems International protested the award in October, saying the defense agency didn’t adequately explain its decision.

ManTech’s bid came in higher than The Buffalo Group’s at about $846 million but the company scored better on other factors. Notably, the agency “determined that ManTech’s risk of unsuccessful performance was low and that The Buffalo Group’s risk of unsuccessful performance was moderate,” the decision from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) states.

The defense agency should have explained in greater detail why the lower price of The Buffalo Group bid was more important than ManTech’s technical superiority, GAO said.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/02/gao-sustains-protest-771-million-defense-intelligence-agency-contract/146147/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: award protest, DIA, evaluation criteria, GAO, IDIQ, proposal evaluation

March 2, 2018 By AMK

George Carlin and the effects on solicitations, contracts

I read an article by Matthew Berry, ESPN senior writer on ESPN.com on Love, Hate and seven dirty words. 

I did not know he worked in Hollywood, where his first job was working as George Carlin’s [the famous comedian] assistant. I remember hearing the, “Seven words you can never say on television,” skit. Most of those words I had heard on the playground, but couldn’t admit to my parents.

Berry stated in the article that Carlin told him: “Words are just words, he would argue, it’s the context of those words that’s the key. The motivation and intent behind what someone was saying was the key. The idea that one word was bad while another was safe was insane to him.”

So how does this apply to solicitations and contracts?

How the government states requirements, proposal preparation instructions, and evaluation criteria matter. What most solicitations and contracts lack is context.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/commentary/2018/02/george-carlin-and-the-effects-on-solicitations-contracts/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition workforce, evaluation criteria, outcome, PWS, requirements definition, RFI, RFP, solicitation, SOO, SOW, statement of objectives, statement of work

October 20, 2017 By AMK

Does agency’s ‘corrective action’ have any limits?

In a recent case, the Army got dinged in the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) despite – indeed, because of – the agency’s efforts to correct a problematic procurement.

58 offerors bid for the Army’s recompete of its Army Desktop Mobile and Computing contract vehicle, but only 9 proposals were deemed technically acceptable. When 21 of the disqualified bidders protested, the Army took “corrective action.” It reopened the competition, allowing all offerors to submit revised proposals and new prices. But the COFC found that the proposed corrective measure was overbroad. The court’s ruling demonstrates that agencies need to tailor corrective action to procurement’s unique problems.

When the Army sought proposals for a series of IDIQ contracts covering desktop computer computers, notebooks, tablets, printers, and beyond, offerors were to be assessed based on three factors. Those three factors were past performance, technical acceptability, and price. Offerors were required to demonstrate technical acceptability, the primary evaluative criteria, by filling out spreadsheet forms in the RFP.

The Call for Corrective Action

With 58 offerors competing, you would expect many proposals would be deemed acceptable, and that price would then become the primary determinative factor.  But out of all the proposals submitted, only 9 were deemed technically acceptable, and all 9 contractors with technically acceptable proposals were given contract awards. It’s no surprise that 21 disappointed offerors filed protests at GAO. The protestors felt that they had technically acceptable items, but were thwarted by confusing aspects of the required spreadsheets, and had made honest mistakes in filling them out. Those who had guessed correctly how to tackle the ambiguous spreadsheets were rewarded, and those who’d guessed incorrectly lost out.

Keep reading this article at: https://petrillopowell.wordpress.com/2017/09/26/does-an-agencys-corrective-action-have-any-limits/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Army, corrective action, evaluation criteria, GAO, IDIQ, protest, selection criteria, technical evaluation, technically acceptable

January 26, 2017 By AMK

GAO ruling lets GSA buy the USDA steak, not the mystery meat

The General Services Administration (GSA) may have just put the first nail in the coffin that eventually will bury the widespread use of lowest-price, technically acceptable (LPTA) contracts for services.

The Government Accountability Office’s decision to deny four protests of GSA’s Alliant 2 contracts for IT services could end up being a landmark ruling that is that first nail.

“Lowest-price technically acceptable has been disfavored among contractors for putting price over innovation. Now we have protesters who in essence claim that cost was only nominally and improperly considered in the Alliant 2 evaluation,” said Barbara Kinosky, managing partner of Centre Law & Consulting LLC. “We have seen DoD move away from LPTA. This is the first major requirement coming out of a civilian agency that is clearly saying, ‘Contractors, we are looking for smart over cheap. Give us the USDA steak, not the convenience store mystery meat.’ I am confident this is a trend we will now see more of since GSA has taken the lead in the technology area where we definitely need to excel.”

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2017/01/gao-ruling-lets-gsa-buy-usda-steak-not-mystery-meat/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Alliant, bid protest, DoD, evaluation criteria, fair and reasonable, GAO, GSA, low bid, lowest cost technically acceptable, lowest price, LPTA, proposal evaluation, quality

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