Thursday, February 16, 2017

Another Example Where Failure to Follow Clear Solicitation Instructions Leads to Lost Opportunities

Why do companies bother to appeal contract awards when they lost out on consideration because they couldn't follow clear solicitation instructions? And then they concoct some kind of scenario to make it look like the Government was at fault, or incompetent. We can't state that such appeals are never successful but we can't think of a case where such appeals were successful.

Here's the latest. Team Housing Solutions protested GSA's decision not to consider its quotation for long-term lodging services because its quotation was not submitted to the online portal identified in the solicitation.

The RFQ (Request for Quotation) required quotations to be submitted via GSA's Information Technology Solutions Shop (ITSS) by 4:00 pm on September 28, 2016. The RFQ cautioned that quotations would not be accepted as valid unless submitted to ITSS. The RFQ reiterated that failure to submit quotations Via ITSS may result in exclusion from consideration.

GSA received quotations from five bidders through its ITSS system. Team Housing was not one of the five. Instead Team Housing submitted their quotation through the Government's "e-buy" system.

Team Housing argued that its quotation was incorrectly submitted due to ambiguous and unclear solicitation instructions. GAO ruled that there was nothing ambiguous or unclear about the solicitation instructions and declared Team Housing's protest was without merit. GAO denied the protest.

This protest, to us, seems about as frivolous as they come. Think about all of the Government resources expended (wasted?) in responding to this appeal.

You can read the full decision here.




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