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Agency Reasonably Distrusts Its Own Estimates

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 04.27.04

In Burney & Burney Constr. Co. (Mar. 19, 2004), GAO upheld an agency’s rejection of a low bid as unbalanced because some of the line items were significantly overstated and, if the agency had ordered more than the estimated quantities for those line items under this requirements contract, the agency would end up paying more under the low bid than under the next-to-low bid. GAO upheld this approach even though the agency used different estimated quantities for the unbalanced bidding analysis than it did for the price determination of the low bid, reasoning that using different estimates for different purposes was reasonable.

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 04.25.24

JUST RELEASED: EPA’s Bold New Strategic Civil-Criminal Enforcement Collaboration Policy

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) just issued its new Strategic Civil-Criminal Enforcement Policy, setting the stage for the new manner in which the agency manages its pollution investigations. David M. Uhlmann, the head of OECA, signed the Policy memorandum on April 17, 2024, in order to ensure that EPA’s civil and criminal enforcement offices collaborate efficiently and consistently in cases across the nation. The Policy states, “EPA must exercise enforcement discretion reasonably when deciding whether a particular matter warrants criminal, civil, or administrative enforcement. Criminal enforcement should be reserved for the most egregious violations.” Uhlmann repeated this statement during a luncheon on April 23, 2024, while also emphasizing the new level of energy this collaborative effort has brought to the enforcement programs....

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