An offeror’s protest of a proposed corrective action was premature where the offeror merely anticipated potential adverse action, according to a recent GAO bid
Source: Protest of Proposed Corrective Action Premature, Says GAO – SmallGovCon
Over the past several weeks, we’ve written a few times about the activities of the Section 809 Panel whose job is to figure out how to ensure the Defense Department (and by extension, Civilian agencies) to more consistently buy what it needs in a timely and cost-effective manner (see, for example, Update on Section 809 Panel).
Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson is “pretty optimistic” a continuing budget resolution won’t extend into 2018, which would alleviate some of the financial uncertainty defense contractors are facing in the Trump administration.
As we prepare for the Department of Defense FY18 budget briefing we’ll deliver at this year’s Government IT Sales Summit, we’ve been able to take a step back and look across the DOD to identify department-wide trends, initiatives and happenings.
Source: The 3 DOD trends you need to know | Government Sales Insider
In this updated presentation, Lisa Pafe reprises her highly rated SPAC 2017 presentation and shares how to modernize your proposal writing (relevant for all proposal managers and writers).
Source: Presentation available | Proposal writing and the eight-second attention span | Lohfeld
The General Services Administration (GSA) is leading an inter-agency working group to develop a guide to assist civilian executive agencies in selecting private firms to perform required contract audits. The inability of DCAA (Defense Contract Audit Agency) to perform timely audits has been reported here and elsewhere and the subject of several GAO (General Accountability Office) and Inspector General reports. Civilian agencies, unlike the Defense Department are not required to utilize DCAA for their contract audit services. Agencies that do utilize DCAA, reimburse DCAA for those services thus there has developed a strong consensus within civilian agencies that they can receive more timely services by contracting with commercial firms rather than relying upon DCAA. Some even contend that the cost for commercial audits are less than the cost for comparable DCAA audits. That contention is difficult to assess. The hourly rates charged by private firms are generally higher than the hourly rates charged by DCAA so the other variable is the number of hours it takes to perform the work. It might be that DCAA, unbound by a profit motive, spends too many hours while a private firm, needing to make a profit, spends too few hours. A number of years ago, the Energy Department moved away from DCAA and contracted with private firms for its contract audit services. Though we have not seen a comprehensive assessment of how that is working, we do know that in some circumstances, the Energy Department has been concerned with the cost growth of these services – especially when contracted firms are called upon to assist “extra-scope” activities such as helping to resolve audit issues that arose from their audits.
An agency’s oral advice, given at a pre-proposal conference, didn’t amend the terms of the solicitation.
Source: GAO: Agency’s Oral Advice Didn’t Amend Solicitation – SmallGovCon
The Defense Health Agency has selected 36 companies for a five-year, $7.5 billion contract to provide health care workers at U.S. military facilities in all 50 states.
Source: DHA picks 36 small firms for $7.5B health care staffing contract — Washington Technology
A protester didn’t recover GAO bid protest costs even after a corrective action that occurred eight months after the protest process began.
Source: GAO: Agency Corrective Action After Eight Months of Protests Was Not “Unduly Delayed” – SmallGovCon
Achieving a consistently high proposal win rate requires a highly capable bid and proposal team, in addition to a strong business ecosystem consisting of contracts, finance, human resources, recruiting, technical and project management, communications, partners, and suppliers. If one or more of the components of the ecosystem is weak, your bid can fail. For example, your proposal might fail if your pricing department is unable to produce a cost competitive proposal, recruiters are unable to identify highly qualified key personnel, or project managers do not receive good customer references.