If you have read any of my blogs before you can tell from my tone as a contracting officer I wanted to get the job done and as we use to say “keep the Mickey Mouse stuff to a minimum”. I wanted to get the RFP out, evaluate the offers, and award the contract so the real work could get started and get the product or service to the customer. As a DOD/USN employee in all the 32 years I worked for Uncle Sam, we were always focusing on supporting the troops/fleet. So we had a little higher sense of urgency on some things we were acquiring. Protests were not a viewed as a good thing!
Okay I know it is a contractor’s right to protest when he feels wronged by the process. However I have seen abuses of that right by individuals and companies. All one needs is a “stamp” to protest. I have seen companies protest at the agency level on set asides for small business because one vendor wanted it to be limited to 8(a) contractors! That would cause me to grind my teeth. Once I saw a major, and I mean major, defense contractor file a General Accountability Office (GAO) protest over a sole source decision by the government, in spite of specific language in the federal budget that stated that the Navy had to acquire a specific product The Navy was not acquiring that effort but the contractor filed the protest, in my opinion, just to delay the Navy from getting started on that product acquisition in hopes that the next budget cycle would provide funding for their product and not the one the Navy wanted now. The contractor lost but it delayed the project by 4 months as my agency had to go through the very tedious process of responding to the protest.
So when to protest? I think a protest is a last resort after a company has exhausted all its options. Talking to the CO and discussing requirements during the solicitation process should occur before filing a protest. One time I had a specification developed by the government with a number of technical errors that one vendor pointed out would limit competition. They called me and asked “Do you really want this?” I went back to the customer and explained why the question was asked. I got an “Oh &*^% we have the wrong numbers” in response. It took us another month to re-check all the numbers but we got it right and the vendor felt he could now make an offer that had a fair chance of winning. Making that phone call saved everyone time and money. If that company had not called before solicitation closed, they could not have protested the requirements as overly restrictive after award. The FAR states that a protest must occur before solicitation closure. Industry is many times smarter that the Government on its product and you have to help us like any commercial customer.
Most protests take place after a de-brief on a competitive RFP. I always suggest that you ask for a de-brief even if you win the RFP. It a learning opportunity and maybe next month I will go into more detail on how a Government prepares and views a de-brief. Remember that the information in the debrief is only about your company. You won’t be hearing about the other company’s proposals. What you should focus on is that the government has followed the evaluation criteria and not strayed out of that box. If you can point to specific mistakes by the Government, then the protest is the way to adjudicate those mistakes. However, the protest where you want to argue that “we are better” usually loses. You must link that argument to specific evaluation criteria where you feel you were not scored accurately. Even then if you weren’t the lowest price the government does not have to pay a premium for your better product or service.
Do not take the decision to protest lightly. It is a costly process for both parties. I have seen funding disappear when a protest slowed up the award process and the money was pulled and used on other projects.