I have previously mentioned “Lessons Learned” under “Business Development Quick Tips and Reminders”, which is essentially an internal debriefing. Therefore, in this blog I am covering external debriefings, aka debriefings with the Government, FAR 15.506. Regardless of whether you win or lose, I recommend requesting a debriefing with the Government. If you lose, you can obtain valuable information about how to be more competitive either technically and/or economically the next time. Plus, if the Government opts for an oral debriefing, you get face time with the Contracting Officer and any other Government officials that are present. If you win, you can still learn about the strengths and weaknesses of your proposal from the Government’s perspective. Equally vital is sharing the information and communicating with everyone who worked on the proposal from the Administrative Staff to the VP and everyone in-between. This reinforces that each and every person is important and makes the team more cohesive for future proposals.
To obtain a debriefing, the offeror shall put the request in writing within 3 days of when offeror received notification of source selection. If the request is received after 3 days, the debriefing is up to the Contracting Officer’s discretion.
What Offerors are Entitled to:
1. A debriefing within 5 days after receipt of the request, if reasonably practical.
2. A debriefing in writing, orally, or by any other method acceptable to the Contracting Officer.
3. Significant weaknesses in the Offeror’s proposal as determined by the Government.
4, Overall technical rating and price of the Successful Offeror.
5. Overall ranking of all Offerors.
6. Summary of rationale for award.
7. Make and model of commercial items, if any, to be delivered by Awardee.
What Offerors are Not Entitled to:
1. Point by point comparisons to other Offeror’s proposals.
2. Trade secrets or other confidential manufacturing processes or techniques.
3. Financial proprietary information including indirect rates from other Offerors.
4. Names of individuals providing reference information on Offeror’s past performance.
To view this FAR clause in its entirety, go to 15.506.
For the complete FAR, go to Federal Acquisition Regulations
For questions or comments, please contact Streamline at KLong@StreamlineGovCon.com or 240-644-5314. We welcome your feedback including other topics of interest.
This blog is for informational purposes only. None of the content is, or will be deemed to constitute legal opinions or legal advice.