Most Expensive Contractor Wins Bid Protest; Three Cheaper Competitors were Vague on Subcontractor Use.
Despite being the most expensive of four bidders, a contractor bidding to install fiber optic cable in Jordan wins its bid protest. This case is a lesson on the use of subcontractors in a small business set-aside contract. A company...
Ask the Bid Protest Attorney: Are Bid Protests “Worth It?”
We are often asked if pursing a bid protest is worth the time, effort, and money. Obviously, the disposition of any case depends on the facts and circumstances of each case. However, as Newsday today reported, it costs on average...
Government Contractors Beware: Federal Court Declares Teaming Agreement Unenforceable
Two government contractors entered into a Teaming Agreement for the purpose of working together towards securing a prime contract from the Federal government. The companies, Information Experts, Inc. (“IE”) and Cyberlock Consulting, Inc. (“Cyberlock”), successfully put forward a persuasive bid,...
Another Small-Business Win; Set-Asides Are Themselves “Competitive”
Here is another win for small-business contractors from the Court of Federal Claims. In an effort to save its contract from a small-business set-aside for which it was ineligible, an incumbent contractor, Dynamic Educational Systems, Inc., (“Dynamic”) filed a pre-award...
Contractor Loses Bid Protest Where Agency Incrementally Corrects Its Mistakes With Great Reluctance; Ask the Bid Protest Attorney
A government agency took corrective action in a series of incremental steps over the course of many months to address a contractor’s pre-award bid protests. (“Corrective action” means that the agency fixes the problems of which the protester complains). However,...
Contractor Excluded from a Sole Source Contract Wins Bid Protest
This case is a good checklist for contractors upset at being left out of a sole source procurement. Innovation Development Enterprises of America, Inc. (IDEA) complained that the United States Air Force violated the Competition in Contracting Act when it...
Likening the Federal Government’s Argument to “Alice in Wonderland,” the Court Sustains a Bid Protest Where the Agency Put an Incorrect Deadline on Its Website
Who says that government contract law is not fun? While it is not common for a federal judge to cite Lewis Carroll’s, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in a bid protest decision, it is not common for the United States to...
Small Business Set-Asides are Themselves “Competitive.”
If the law requires competitive bidding for a government contract, and an agency designates a contract as one for small businesses only, does the removal of large businesses from the contracting pool itself render the solicitation non-competitive? The Court of...
Contractor Wins Bid Protest for a Second Time Because Agency Doesn’t Document Its Decisionmaking
A government contractor wins its second bid protest in a row at the Court of Federal Claims. In this latest instance, it won because the agency, the Army, failed to document its evaluation and came across to the Court as...