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Watch for Conversion of Best-Value Evaluation to Lowest-Cost, Technically Acceptable

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 12.04.13

With budgetary pressures increasing, agencies are more prone to make cost the determinative factor in their evaluations – regardless of the actual evaluation scheme – improperly converting a procurement into a lowest-cost, technically acceptable one. As demonstrated in GAO's recent decision in Logistics 2020, Inc. (Nov. 6, 2013), this may occur when a solicitation calls for a best-value award, but the agency uses evaluation criteria that merely measure whether proposals are technically acceptable, not whether any qualitative differences exist between proposals.


Insights

Client Alert | 5 min read | 09.21.26

Congressional Letter Puts Spotlight on Unenforceable Secrecy Demands in Federal Subpoenas

When federal law enforcement agencies issue subpoenas to companies for information about their customers, the subpoenas or cover letters often contain boilerplate nondisclosure language. This language generally directs companies not to notify those customers and implies that there may be legal consequences for doing so. But as two lawmakers recently called out in a formal letter to the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), this boilerplate language may not carry the force of law....