Forty-four percent of the protests filed at the Government Accountability Office in FY 2018 received some sort of remedial action, according to annual figures recently released by GAO. In fact, if out of scope or untimely protests are eliminated, contractors got something that they wanted more than half of the time. Despite the negative perception some have of protests, these figures indicate that timely and reasonable protests continue to fill an important role in government acquisition. Agencies do take some sort of remedial action when a protest points out potential problems. While a protest doesn’t ensure that your company will get an award the next time around, it does mean that you have a good shot of getting another chance to compete. While only one-half of one percent of all protests went to a formal hearing, GAO’s reasons for sustaining protests nevertheless provide clues as to why protests, generally, may succeed. The top three reasons GAO decided protests on in FY’18 were: 1. Unreasonable technical evaluation; 2. Unreasonable cost or price evaluation and; 3. Flawed source selection decision. As GAO’s new filing fee requirement was implemented half way through the year, it is too early to tell if that had an impact on the total number of protests. As it is, protests were down only a very small fraction from FY’17. The bottom line remains that companies with reasonable grounds for protesting a solicitation or award action should seriously consider doing so
Although well over half of FY’19’s discretionary spending has been appropriated, many agencies are operating under a Continuing Resolution that expires at midnight December 7th. If Congress can’t agree to a deal by then, most of those agencies will run out of money and close down. The agency in this category of greatest interest to contractors is the Department of Homeland Security. It’s no surprise that the federal agency so closely tied to a possible Read more
Trying without success to get your DHS customer to respond to your e-mail or meeting request? Don’t take it personally. If your contacts are anywhere near senior management they’re likely planning for a potential shutdown next week (see above). So, too, are other agencies that may run out of money. Agencies must adhere to Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) requirements. This means meetings about “what if” scenarios that must cover what operations would close, stay open, or be altered during shut-downs of various duration. That’s Read more
While GSA has said that contractors may not experience any immediate impact of their decision to consolidate the MAS program into “one schedule”, that doesn’t mean that there is nothing for you to prepare for now. Indeed, any reading of the agency’s stated desire to consolidate around one set of terms and conditions should give contractors pause. First, any non-standard contract term you have now could come under scrutiny. Were you successful in Read more
Laura Stanton, most recently in charge of GSA’s mammoth commercial e-commerce platform project, will be the new Deputy Assistant Commissioner for the IT Category. She is essentially swapping places with Crystal Philcox who will assume Stanton’s former position as Assistant Commissioner for Strategy Management. Stanton will have a very full plate as she will bring her e-commerce project with her, in addition to overseeing the implementation of the EIS telecom vehicle. That contract is expected to start giving Authority to Operate (ATO) status to contractors in the next 30-60 days and business will quickly ramp up on it. In the meantime, the commercial e-commerce project is expected to have an industry day and RFI issued soon, with a report to Congress due sometime in March. GSA officials speaking at an industry event this week said they hope to have a “proof of concept” for the e-commerce project in place by the end of 2019. Stanton is an experienced leader with an excellent industry outreach record. She is also known for taking a strategic view of her projects and being a strong advocate for GSA’s acquisition mission. Stanton has over 18 years of experience at GSA, including stints as Program Manager for the Common Acquisition Platform and Director of Innovation for the Federal Acquisition Service. She also worked for six years as a telecom analyst with GSA.