Procurement ■GAO procedures Protest timeliness ☐☐☐ 10-day rule ■ Adverse agency actions Letter to agency stating intent to protest rejection of proposal which does not state any basis for protest is not sufficient to constitute a protest to agency; in any event, agency-level protest must be filed within 10 working days of date protester knew the basis for its protest. GAO procedures Protest timeliness ☐☐☐ 10-day rule Forum election 43 The fact that protest is first filed with General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals and dismissed without prejudice for lack of jurisdiction does not preclude subsequent filing at General Accounting Office within 10 days of when protester originally learned its basis for protest. ■GAO procedures Protest timeliness ☐☐☐ Apparent solicitation improprieties 295 Protest against alleged apparent defects in evaluation criteria for architect-engineer selection is untimely where filed after the date specified for receipt of qualification statements from the competing firms. GAO procedures 684 Protest timeliness ■■■Apparent solicitation improprieties Protest alleging apparent defects in a request for proposals is untimely where it was not filed prior to the closing date for receipt of initial proposals. ■GAO procedures Protest timeliness ☐☐☐ Apparent solicitation improprieties 112 Protest of solicitation's misdescription of surplus scrap metal is untimely where protester was aware that property was misdescribed and that agency would request waiver of liability for the misdescription prior to bid opening but did not file a protest with the agency until after bid opening. 67 Procurement ■GAO procedures Protest timeliness ☐☐☐ Apparent solicitation improprieties Protest that technical specifications were unduly restrictive of competition is untimely where this ■GAO procedures Protest timeliness ☐☐☐ Delays ☐☐☐☐ Agency-level protests 432 Where protester waits 8 months to receive the procuring agency's final decision on its agency-level GAO procedures Protest timeliness ☐☐☐Significant issue exemptions ■■■■ Applicability 439 Protest presents a significant issue justifying consideration on the merits even if it is untimely filed Moot allegation GAO review Subcontracts GAO review 473 Protest of a subcontract awarded by a government prime contractor is dismissed where the subcon- Subcontracts ☐☐GAO review 376 The General Accounting Office will not consider a bid protest of a subcontractor selection by an 635 Procurement Competitive Negotiation Best/final offers ■■Technical acceptability Negative determination Propriety Protester's proposal was properly rejected as technically unacceptable where protester's best and final offer did not comply with material, mandatory requirements under the request for proposals. An offeror should not expect to be granted an additional opportunity to clarify or revise its proposal after submission of best and final offers. 708 ■Competitive advantage ■Conflicts of interest ☐☐☐ Post-employment restrictions ■■■■ Allegation substantiation Protest that proposed awardee's employment of a former agency employee as its program manager constitutes a conflict of interest which should disqualify the firm from the award is denied where the record does not show that any action by the former agency employee resulted in prejudice for, or on behalf of, the proposed awardee or establish violation of post-employment restrictions on government employees. Competitive advantage Conflicts of interest ☐☐☐ Post-employment restrictions Allegation substantiation 6 Statutes barring retired military officer from representing other parties before military department within 2 years of retirement and permanently barring officer from representing parties before government concerning matters in which officer was personally and substantially involved are, either by explicit statutory language or agency regulation, not applicable to retired enlisted military personnel. 332 ■Competitive advantage ■■Non-prejudicial allegation An agency is not required to cast its procurement in a manner that neutralizes the competitive advantages some firms may have over the protester by virtue of their own particular circumstances. 57 Procurement Competitive advantage ■■■Disclosure Competitive restrictions Preferred products/services Domestic sources Contract awards | Administrative discretion Cost/technical tradeoffs Cost savings Allegation that agency made improper price/technical tradeoff is denied where, contrary to protest- Contract awards | Administrative discretion Cost savings 75 Contracting agency may accept a technically lower rated proposal to take advantage of its lower Contract awards ■Administrative discretion ■ Cost/technical tradeoffs ☐☐☐☐ Technical superiority 714 Contracting agency acted reasonably in selecting for award an offeror proposing a superior docu- Contract awards Administrative discretion ■■Technical equality Cost equality 249 Where selection official, after evaluation of proposals on a basis consistent with the solicitation's Procurement vantage in either proposal, base and award fees may become the determinative selection factor for award of a cost-plus-award-fee contract where this is consistent with stated evaluation factors. O Contract awards Administrative discretion ☐☐☐ Technical equality Cost savings 25 25 Notwithstanding greater importance of other factors in overall evaluation scheme, agency may make award to lower-cost offeror where record establishes that contracting officer had determined proposals to be technically equal and that he had previously advised offerors at the preproposal conference (subsequently confirmed in writing to all offerors) that the agency would use cost as a tiebreaker in the event proposals were rated technically equal. Contract awards Award pending appeals ☐☐☐ Multiple/aggregate awards ■■■■ Propriety 25 25 Where the solicitation contemplates multiple contracts for services required at many different locations throughout the country, and a protest has been filed against proposed awards at some but not all of those locations, the stay provision of the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984, 31 U.S.C. § 3553(c)(1) (Supp. IV 1986), requires the contracting agency to refrain from making awards only on those proposed contracts that are the subject of the protest. | Contract awards Initial-offer awards Discussion ■■■■ Propriety 314 Contracting agency improperly made award on the basis of initial proposals, without discussions, where the record does not clearly show that the contract awarded will result in the lowest overall cost to the government. | Contract awards ■■Propriety ■Corporate entities 334 Generally, firm that is owned or controlled by federal employees is not eligible for award of contract and is not an interested party to protest since it would not be in line for award even if its protest were sustained. Firm is an interested party, however, where federal employees that own and control firm were eligible to retire and indicated in their proposal their willingness to retire from govern |