Imagine this: your company has spent weeks, if not more, agonizing over a bid—considering the best technical approach, organizing a team, determining the right personnel mix, and sweating the submission details. Regardless of the outcome, it’s only fair that the government tell you what it liked, and didn’t like, about your effort.
That’s where a debriefing comes in. Done properly, a debriefing provides vital information to an offeror about its effort—information that an offeror might use to enhance its competitiveness for the next opportunity.
Let’s take a look at a few important points about debriefings.
First, a debriefing can be provided in either the pre-award or post-award context. A pre-award debriefing usually follows an offeror’s exclusion from the competitive range (before final award has been made), while a post-award debriefing occurs (as its name implies) after the agency has determined the awardee.
The context of the debriefing will govern the information provided. For pre-award debriefings, an agency is required to provide the evaluation of significant elements in the proposal and the rationale for the offeror’s exclusion. Under a post-award debriefing, an agency must provide the significant weaknesses or deficiencies in the proposal; the technical ratings and evaluated prices of the offeror and the awardee; and a summary of the rationale for award. In no case, however, will the government provide confidential or source selection information relating to a competitor.
Second, offerors can—and should!—ask questions about the evaluation. Specifically, the FAR requires an agency to provide “[r]easonable responses to relevant questions about whether source selection procedures contained in the solicitation, applicable regulations, and other applicable authorities were followed.”
After considering the award decision, therefore, offerors should study the solicitation and write down any questions they might have about the evaluation. Pose those questions to the agency, and hope for clear answers.
Third, debriefings are only required in certain circumstances: namely, competitive procurements (under FAR part 15) and for task or delivery orders valued over $5.5 million (FAR 16.505(b)(6)). And, as a result of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, the Department of Defense must provide “enhanced debriefings” for all contract awards valued at $10 million or more.
For any other contract award, debriefings are not required. Instead, in those cases, an offeror may receive “a brief explanation of award”—which often includes significantly less information than a debriefing might.
Fourth, debriefings must be requested within three calendar days of the award notice. Requesting a debriefing is easy—you can simply email the contracting officer to say “I request a debriefing.”
A debriefing might also alter the timeframe to file a bid protest. Usually, a bid protest must be filed at GAO within 10 days from the date you knew (or should’ve known) of the basis of protest; but if a required debriefing is timely requested, a protest must instead be filed within 10 days from the conclusion of that debriefing.
Finally, debriefings are not limited to only unsuccessful offerors. Any offeror—including the awardee—has a right to receive the debriefing. And though the knowledge of a successful offer might be enough, I always suggest that a successful offeror request a debriefing to better understand why the agency chose its effort . . . to hopefully replicate that result under the next opportunity.
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Debriefings have the potential to be a valuable tool to contractors who take the time to study the effort and implement any lessons learned.
If you have any questions about maximizing your debriefings, please give me a call.