Articles by William Spriggs

We've written often about the contractor's duty to inquire and seek clarification of solicitation ambiguities before submitting its bid.  The rule is clear.  If the solicitation is obviously unclear, the contractor has a duty to inquire and seek clarification of the ambiguous language or assume the … [Read more...]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has just sustained a protest because the source selection authority (SSA) failed to substantively consider differences between proposals, and also failed to adequately explain and properly document the source selection decision.  B-408046; B-408046.2.  This … [Read more...]

Contractors hate to litigate claims.  They have better things to do.  It takes too long and diverts important resources into a speculative, risky enterprise with no hope of a new product or service line.  But some contractors are either forced or choose to treat losses written off as possible profit … [Read more...]

On December 7, 2011, DOD introduced a new clause for contracts estimated to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold. DOD now requires contractors to certify that any request for equitable adjustment (REA) exceeding that threshold in amount is "made in good faith, and that the supporting data are … [Read more...]

One of our most popular discussions deals with how to prepare a request for equitable adjustment (REA).  In response, we've had a number of questions about when, why and how to convert the REA to a claim.  Again, there is no guidance in the regulations in answer to these questions so we suggest … [Read more...]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has just sustained a protest in which the protester argued that the awardee's proposal should have been rejected as unacceptable on the basis that its price was too low.  The solicitation established that the agency would evaluate whether bidders' prices … [Read more...]

We can only report on what we see.  We don't see everything and report only on what is happening in our corner of experience.  However, there are some noticeable trends so far in 2013 worthy of note.  They involve source selection, protests, sequestration related pullbacks of outsourced work and … [Read more...]

Two weeks after sequestration began, contract lawyer Bill Spriggs got a call from a vendor client upset that a federal contracting official had just ordered it to cut its price by 10 percent for “sequestration-related cuts” without a change in service levels.Spriggs declined to name the contractor … [Read more...]

The Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) has just applied the sovereign act defense in a case involving a contract for improving vehicle armor and upgrading and painting vehicles for the Iraqi National Police under a contract awarded by the government.  The government moved for summary … [Read more...]

In our opinion, lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA) is not best value.  It is not part of the best value continuum.  It should be removed from FAR Part 15 along with the misnomer "continuum".  LPTA has become the way in which agencies inveigle contractors into the best value game only to … [Read more...]

Sean Stackley recently called our acquisition system the most "complex, chaotic, over regulated and overseen process in the world."  We may disagree with him.  We are not so sure about the chaotic part.  But it is time to remind ourselves that the federal procurement system is by design a tilted and … [Read more...]