What is the first thing you should do when you get a
solicitation for a competitive government buy?
Find the evaluation factors, read
them, make sure you understand them, make sure they are fair, make sure they
comply with the regulations and use them to manage your proposal effort. If they are not clear, fair or if they do not
comport with the regulations, protest immediately. We can assure you most problems in
competitive procurements are caused by improperly articulated evaluation
factors. The time to solve these
problems is when the solicitation is first issued.
We are against protesting unless a regulation is
violated. We also are against writing
stuff people do not understand. If the
evaluation factors are not written clearly and if they do not strictly follow
regulatory requirements, protesting is an absolute necessity. This is probably the one situation where
there is no doubt about the propriety of protesting all the way up the
line. First, “protest” to the
contracting officer. Write a letter
(emails are legal letters) thoroughly explaining what is unclear or illegal
about the evaluation factor section of the solicitation. Yes, it is illegal to fail to follow the
regulation on evaluation factors. If
that doesn’t work, file a formal agency protest or protest to GAO.
Evaluation factors are discussed In FAR Parts 12, 13, 14
and 15. All competitive procurements
implicate FAR Part 15 principles, according to GAO. Part 15 has the most thorough discussion of
evaluation factors. Although Parts 12,
13 and 14 have their own discussions and Parts 12 and 13 allow much more
discretion as to what factors are used, Part 15 is the gospel on evaluation
factors. The main point to remember is that all competitive procurements require
a solicitation contain evaluation factors.
They must also be written in plain English.
If nothing else, failure
to state evaluation factors is egregiously unfair. How in the world can you compete if you don’t
know how you will be judged? Why would
you engage in any competition without knowing the rules of the game?
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