My computer-adverse client called yesterday to say she would be coming by my office to work with me on the proposal and that she would be bringing "a big round diskette" that had some material on it that we could use. I got a little panicky because I had no idea what a big round diskette was. Could she have been referring to the old 5" floppy disks that don't exist any more? Finally I realized that she was probably bringing a CD with files on it. And that's what it was.
When she got here, we worked on the proposal for a bit, and then she dropped a bombshell, telling me that she did not need to submit a cost proposal. She said that she had gotten this information at the bidder's conference. I told her that this did not make sense, and she pointed to a section in the RFP that said that bidders would not need to submit a financial statements or details on their burdened rate until just prior to contract execution. Plus, she thought that the evaluation criteria related to cost was confusing. I tried to explain, but she was convinced that the Contracting Officer had said no cost proposal.
So she decided to call the Contracting Officer. Except she dialed the wrong number and got hold of the Technical Officer (COTR) instead. The COTR could not find the page in the RFP that my client was referring to and insisted that there was no such page. They went round and round on this:
COTR - what page is that?
Client - it is page 54.
COTR - there is no page 54.
Client - yes, on page 54 it gives the evaluation criteria for cost
COTR - the evaluation criteria ends on page 53
Client - no, there is another page
COTR - I have the RFP right in front of me and the page after page 53 is this one (reads the first sentence).
Client - no, that it not it.
COTR - I will have to check with the procurement office because it is not in my copy. Oh, wait a minute, here it is. The pages in my copy are out of order. At any rate, you need to talk to the Contracting Officer about this because I don't know the answer to your question.
So my client gets hold of the Contracting Officer and asks the question about submitting the cost proposal. He said yes, we have to submit a cost proposal, but not price. As for an explanation of the evaluation criteria related to cost, he cannot tell my client what it means. She has to interpret it for herself the best she can. They go round and round on this for a while, but my client finally hangs up and says to me:
"I better get started on my cost proposal."
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