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 | 4 min read | 10.30.26
Recent sustain decisions by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Fluor Federal Solutions, LLC and Reliance Test & Technology send a clear message: when an agency tries to fix a Procurement Integrity Act (PIA) violation by committing a second one, the cure can be just as fatal as the disease. The cases involved the U.S. Air Force’s $1.8 billion procurement for O&M services at Elgin Air Force Base. During discussions, the Air Force inadvertently released a pricing overview slide with all offerors’ bottom-line evaluated costs to Reliance Test & Technology, which immediately notified the agency of the error. In response, the Air Force decided to level the playing field by providing the same information to all the other offerors in the procurement, stating, “[o]fferors may consider this disclosure in their [final proposal revision].”
Client Alert | 3 min read | 10.29.26
What University Licensors Should Learn From TexasLDPC v. Broadcom
Client Alert | 2 min read | 10.28.26
Debriefing to Dead Briefing: How to Avoid Dismissal by Identifying “Required” Debriefings
