for a relatively small government contract to be awarded? The answer is: it can take a verrry long time.
One of my clients sent me an e-mail yesterday. The client is a law firm that does some very specialized work for the government. I've assisted them with their proposals on a number of occasions. The last time I worked with them was last March and April, on a proposal that was due in April 2007. Hadn't heard a word from them since, which is not unusual. Clients don't always inform me about the outcomes of their bids.
Anyway, out of the blue comes the e-mail. It says that my client has finally been contacted by the government agency and that they were notified that all of the proposals submitted by bidders contained some kind of fatal error. So the government will now be giving all all bidders an opportunity to submit corrected or revised proposals.
I don't know what this fatal error is, but if all of the bidders made this same error, it would seem to me that the government screwed something up. And to allow a year to go by before leting everyone know -- well, that is pretty outrageous.
I've just finished with recompete #2. So I agreed to help my law firm client with their revised proposal. Somehow I'll have to fit it in between working on recompete #3. And oh joy, the manual has now landed back on my desk again for more changes, additions, etc. This will supposedly be the final, final version. We'll see.
Just when I thought I could take a little break.
Deb, I have crossed the "fatal error" bridge before. When this happens it's wise to send a question asking that "substantive" changes between the original and revised RFP be highlighted so biddders can be more responsive. (In other words, what did you guys screw up?)
Sometimes it's a factual error -- wrong vehicle, wrong set-aside designation, wrong NAICS, wrong contracting authority, wrong place of performance. Sometimes it's a disconnect between the contract language in the RFP and the FAR, invalidating the bids. Sometimes it's a disconnect between the requistioning agency and the contracting authority such as wrong, incomplete or unfunded requirements or tasks. Other times it's a question of insufficient number of bidders to establish a valid competition, or all bids received were too expensive (hours or dollars). One time we had to re-submit because every bidder failed to answer a requirement added in an addendum -- the 12th addendum -- released on the due date! (The proposals had to be delivered by U.S. Mail -- no one had an opportunity to respond to the addendum on a same day basis because hand-carried proposals would not be accepted.)