“Evaluation of offers is a crucial point in the procurement process. During this time period, an agency may, in certain procurements, reach out with discussion questions meant to bring clarity to the decision-making process. However, any such discussions must be meaningful.
As one offeror recently found out, meaningful discussions even apply in so-called simplified acquisitions…”
“On October 29, 2020, the Department of Homeland Security, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), issued the solicitation at issue for leadership-focused training. The solicitation was a single indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract with a five-year ordering period. The original award decision was not planning to establish a competitive range or conduct discussions. However, the contracting officer reserved the right to conduct discussions if it was deemed necessary…”
“After reevaluation, ICE again made the same award decision. ICE proposed to pay an approximately 53% premium over Academy. The reasoning given by ICE was that the awardee ranked significantly higher than Academy on the highest-weighted factors. Academy, once again, filed protest…”
“GAO found that the communications with Academy were not on par with ICE’s communications with the awardee. ICE notified Academy that it had different aspects of its proposal that raised or lowered the expectations of success. GAO found that although ICE couched these ‘lower the expectations of success’ as not identifying deficiencies or weaknesses, GAO did not bite. GAO found, ‘where an agency avails itself of negotiated procurement procedures, the agency should treat offerors fairly and reasonably in the conduct of those procedures.’…”
“The bottom line here, is when an agency reaches out to request modification of aspects of proposals, it may be opening the door to conducting discussions. When discussions (even unintentionally) are undertaken, the discussions must be meaningful. GAO defines meaningful discussions to require that “an agency must point out significant weaknesses or deficiencies in a proposal that require correction or amplification in order for the offeror to have a reasonable chance for award.” Here, ICE pointed out the awardee’s pricing issue and allowed correction, without providing the same opportunity to all offerors…” Read the full article here.
Source: GAO Affirms any Discussions During Evaluations Must be Meaningful – By Christopher Coleman, November 8, 2021. SmallGovCon.
