solicitation | The Contracting Education Academy

March 3, 2020 By cs

Overstock.com protest could delay GSA commercial e-marketplace pilots until April or beyond

The General Services Administration (GSA) recently responded to an Overstock.com protest of the agency’s commercial e-marketplace solicitation, which could delay pilots until April — assuming revisions aren’t ordered.

Overstock filed its pre-award bid protest with the Government Accountability Office on Jan. 15 arguing some of the solicitation’s terms are ambiguous and restrict competition. The internet retailer further argued GSA didn’t allow sufficient time for companies to respond, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

Overstock had until Feb. 24 to respond to GSA’s agency report based on anything it learns. The protest itself is covered by a protective order limiting disclosure to lawyers for the private parties.

Section 846 of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act directed GSA to work with nontraditional government contractors on allowing agencies to purchase up to $250,000 — the simplified acquisition threshold — in commercial items. GSA’s initial pilot will focus on e-marketplaces like Amazon or Overstock, where competition between sellers occurs at the item level.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/overstock-gsa-e-marketplace-protest/

February 25, 2020 By cs

Contractor successfully uses GAO pre-award protest to modify solicitation

When the terms of a solicitation run contrary to the regulations, challenging the solicitation in a pre-award protest may provide contractors the chance to shift the tide in their favor before bids are submitted and an award is made.

In January 2020, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained a pre-award bid protest brought by Noble Supply & Logistics, Inc. that challenged the terms of a General Services Administration (GSA) solicitation. Noble Supply & Logistics, Inc., B-418141, 2020 WL 289546 (Jan. 16, 2020). Noble Supply argued the RFQ’s price evaluation methodology, as written, failed to provide for an evaluation of which offeror presented the best value and the lowest overall cost alternative, in violation of FAR part 8.

In the RFQ, GSA asked holders of GSA 51V Hardware Superstore Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts to bid on four blanket purchase agreements (BPAs) to provide hardware products and services to four military branches. For its price evaluation factor, the RFQ stated that GSA would evaluate price quotations “to ensure that offered pricing, to include flat rates and tiered volume discounts, is fair and reasonable.” The RFQ then stated that GSA would not evaluate whether the award was the “lowest-priced technically acceptable” (LPTA), nor would it conduct a “best value tradeoff source selection methodology.” Thus, GSA would only evaluate the quotes for price reasonableness to determine whether prices were unreasonably high.

Noble Supply argued that this price methodology was contrary to 41 U.S.C. sections 152, 8.404(d) and 8.405-3(a), which require GSA to award BPAs to the awardee that provides the “best value and results in the lowest overall cost alternative.” GAO agreed, explaining that “consideration of the lowest cost is an imperative when using the FSS” and therefore GSA is required to “reach a determination regarding which FSS vendor meets the agency’s needs at the lowest overall cost.” Noble Supply & Logistics, Inc., B-418141, 2020 WL 289546, at *6 (Jan. 16, 2020).

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/Article/891604

January 15, 2020 By cs

GSA reissues e-commerce platform solicitation with significant changes

After an extended bid period and a short-lived protest, the General Services Administration (GSA) has re-released the request for proposals for an e-commerce platform with some significant changes.

However, vendors that didn’t bid on the original proposal won’t get another chance this time around.

The government buyers at GSA want federal employees to be able to purchase standard goods through a digital platform, similar to e-commerce platforms like Amazon. For the last few years, the agency has been working on a solicitation for just such a platform and released an RFP in October for “online e-marketplace platforms [that] feature multiple suppliers offering the same product and will allow buyers to decide which supplier/product combination meets their needs.”

The first instance of this platform will be a three-year, multiple-award pilot to test the marketplace idea. Once up and running, agencies will be able to purchase products directly through the portal for any transactions under the micropurchase threshold of $10,000.

After bids were submitted in mid-November, GSA received a protest of the solicitation, prompting the agency to pull it back and rework the RFP. The agency reissued the solicitation on Jan. 8, with revised bids due Jan. 15.

The revised solicitation includes several changes. The most important is the insertion of language in two places requiring bidders to provide a full, working solution rather than one developed in conjunction with GSA.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/01/gsa-reissues-e-commerce-platform-solicitation-significant-changes/162374/

October 2, 2019 By cs

DoD finalizes restrictions on use of LPTA source selection process

Effective October 1, 2019, the Department of Defense (DoD) has issued a final rule restricting the use of lowest-price technically-acceptable (LPTA) solicitations in certain circumstances.

This rule implements statutory changes from the 2017 and 2018 NDAA that will greatly impact the use of LPTA procurements by DoD contracting officers.

For those who may not have been following our previous coverage of these changes, here is a quick summary. The 2017 NDAA established a new DoD policy of avoiding LPTA evaluations, when doing so would deny DoD the benefits of cost and technical tradeoffs. The 2017 NDAA limited the use of LPTA source selection based on six conditions, and suggested that, for a majority of procurements, DoD should use best-value procedures. The 2018 NDAA added two more requirements to the original six, and the echoed the 2017 NDAA in calling for limits to the use of LPTA source selection in DoD procurements. Until recently, DoD had not updated its regulations to reflect Congress’ intent to limit LPTA source selections, leaving contracting officers at DoD without detailed guidance.

DoD just issued a final rule amending the DFARS to reflect the relevant sections of the 2017 and 2018 NDAA, limiting the use of LPTA source selection procedures in DoD procurements. This final rule, once implemented, will make changes to the DFARS and the relevant regulations reflecting these changes will be found at DFARS 215.101-2-70.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/statutes-and-regulations/dod-finalizes-restrictions-on-use-of-lpta-source-selection-process/

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/

The General Services Administration (GSA) recently responded to an Overstock.com protest of the agency’s commercial e-marketplace solicitation, which could delay pilots until April — assuming revisions aren’t ordered.

When the terms of a solicitation run contrary to the regulations, challenging the solicitation in a pre-award protest may provide contractors the chance to shift the tide in their favor before bids are submitted and an award is made.

After an extended bid period and a short-lived protest, the General Services Administration (GSA) has re-released the request for proposals for an e-commerce platform with some significant changes.

Effective October 1, 2019, the Department of Defense (DoD) has issued a final rule restricting the use of lowest-price technically-acceptable (LPTA) solicitations in certain circumstances.

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

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