Drafting a proposal in response to a federal solicitation can be a challenging task. This process becomes even more difficult when the terms of the solicitation are ambiguous, restrictive, or simply incorrect. As a contractor, there are strategies you can employ to try to address these issues. One underutilized strategy is a pre-award protest challenging the terms of a solicitation.
When used correctly, a pre-award protest could result in changes to problematic solicitation terms and may provide offerors extra time to submit a proposal. Challenging an unreasonable solicitation pre-award is particularly important, as a post-award protest of a solicitation provision will usually be dismissed as untimely. For this reason and more, a pre-award protest is a tool that all government contractors should keep in mind while drafting proposals and reviewing solicitations.
- Effectively using the questions & answers process and other pre-proposal submissions;
- Pre-award protest arguments, including last-minute amendments, unduly restrictive terms, ambiguous provisions, and improprieties;
- When and where to file a pre-award protest; and
- Recent developments in pre-award protests.