Every federal contractor knows how difficult it is to win a government contract. Indeed, contractors often start pursuing larger contracts or vehicles well over a year before the solicitation is even published. And, while each contractor’s business development and capture strategies vary, they typically share two characteristics: copious amounts of time and money. Given the...
Yesterday, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) published its Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2022. GAO’s annual report is required under the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984 (“CICA”) and provides the government contracting community with good insight into GAO’s bid protest function. [1] Despite being just four pages (excluding GAO’s...
In August, the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) provided a boost for small business joint ventures (“JV”) that are pursuing defense contracts in holding that the plain language of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) prohibits the Department of Defense (“DoD”) “from issuing solicitations that require a joint venture, rather than the members of the...
A recent Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) bid protest decision provides a reminder of when an agency may conduct a price realism analysis in fixed-price contracts. So, the next time you want to challenge a competitor’s low price, remember that agencies are neither required nor permitted to conduct a price realism analysis in a fixed-price procurement...
A string of recent GAO decisions dismissing untimely bid protests suggests it is a good time to review GAO’s timeliness rules. In general, protests challenging patent improprieties in a solicitation must be filed prior to the deadline for the submission of bids or proposals. 4 C.F.R. 21.2(a)(1). GAO rules do not permit a contractor to...