Government Contracts

The U.S. Senate recently passed its proposal for the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”). The Senate’s version of this bill proposed several significant changes aimed at reducing the number of “frivolous” and speculative protests against Defense procurements filed at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”). To provide offerors with…

Debriefings – already an important part of the solicitation process – may become even more valuable if the Senate’s proposal for the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act to provide even more information in DoD procurement debriefings becomes law. (Read our write-up of this proposed legislation here.) Whether the proposed…

Although a government solicitation might incorrectly use the terms “quote” and “offer” interchangeably, vendors must know the difference between these two distinct terms. It can be the difference between getting the work and losing it. A situation demonstrating the importance of this difference is discussed in a GAO decision of…

Many contractors are aware of FAR 52.212-1(f)(2), which states that proposals received by the Government after the time specified in the solicitation are late and will not be considered, but for a few very limited exceptions explicitly set forth in the FAR. GAO strictly enforces this “late is late” rule…

A government contractor can lose a contract generally in two ways. First, the government can find the offer to be not responsive or acceptable. Second, the government could find the offer acceptable but the offeror not responsible. Many small businesses know that the SBA can help if an agency denies…

Although email has in many ways made procurement easier, like many things it has a downside. Two recent decisions of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) show how proposals got lost at the very end of the proposal preparation process and were never received by the government. Not only…

A common question from subcontractors and suppliers is “what can we do when a prime contractor doesn’t pay us?” The simplest solution, calling up the contracting officer and complaining about the prime’s failure to pay, seems like a prohibited one. Subcontracts often contain a subcontractor’s promise that it will…

When an agency tries to end your GAO protest by promising to take “correction action,” should you protest the corrective action if it fails to address every one of your protest arguments? Here’s the protester’s dilemma: protesting corrective action often turns out to be premature and a waste of money;…

Under GAO’s rules, a protest based on grounds other than alleged improprieties in a solicitation must be filed within 10 days of when the protestor knew or should have known of the basis for the protest. An exception for this rule applies to “a procurement conducted on the basis of…