• LinkedIn
  • Google +
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

+1-703-556-0411

Bid Protest Weekly
  • Home
  • Bid Protest Ed Center
    • WHAT is a bid protest?
    • WHO can file a bid protest
    • DO I need an Attorney?
    • WHY Should you file a bid protest?
    • WHEN Must you file a bid protest?
    • WHERE can you file a bid protest?
    • READING the RFP
  • Blog
  • Topics
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Last Minute Proposal Submission May Equal Late Proposal Submission

  • By GCPC GovCon Legal Team
  • December 13, 2013
  • Blog Articles
  • 0 Comments

Bid Protest Weekly Newsletter by Bryan R. King, Attorney, General Counsel PC

Date: Friday, December 13, 2013, 10:30am EST

RDT-Semper Tek JV, LLC, B-408811, December 9, 2013
JV Derichebourg-BMAR & Associates, LLC, B-408777, November 20, 2013
Tom Coughlin, the Super Bowl winning head coach of the New York Giants, is somewhat notorious for his insistence that if his players showed up to a meeting on time, they were actually late. He wanted his players arriving to meetings early, prepared and ready to go upon the meeting’s starting time. If the players failed to adhere to this philosophy, there were consequences. Government contractors might be wise to adopt Coach Coughlin’s “if you’re on time you’re late” rule when submitting proposal submissions.

Solicitations issued by the government have deadlines for when proposals have to be submitted. You have to cut off the receipt of proposals at some point, right? But just as it is a certainty that a solicitation will have a deadline, it is almost just as certain that there will be an offeror waiting until the absolute last moment to submit its proposal in order to utilize every second of preparation time possible. GAO recently released two bid protest decisions highlighting the importance for government contractors to be very mindful of solicitation deadlines.

In negotiated procurements such as the two discussed below, procuring agencies are required to include a clause in the solicitation informing offerors that proposals received at the designated place after the exact time specified in the solicitation will be “late,” and will not considered for award. (FAR § 52.215-1). There are exceptions to this rule which allow the agency to accept a late proposal. However, these exceptions are extremely limited, and as demonstrated below, offerors submitting proposals after the deadline are generally out of luck.

In RDT-Sempter Tek JV, LLC, the Dept. of the Army, Corps of Engineers issued a solicitation allowing offerors to submit proposals by hand delivery. However, the solicitation instructed offerors electing to submit a proposal via hand delivery to call prior to delivery due to heightened security at the delivery site. The protester in this case followed the solicitation’s instructions, calling the contracting office several hours before the deadline. However, the protester waited until the last minute to actually deliver its proposal. The protester received a receipt from the agency’s mailroom time-stamped 2:03 p.m., which was three minutes after the deadline set by the solicitation.

In JV Derichebourg-BMAR & Associates, LLC, the Dept. of the Navy, Naval Facilities Engineering Command issued a solicitation advising offerors to submit proposals via email. The protester informed the agency it would be sending its proposal in pieces, with the attached proposal documents to be included in two separate emails. However, the protester only included attachments with its first email, apparently forgetting to attach documents to email number two. As a result, the agency only sent the protester a confirmation of receipt for the first email. After not having received receipt confirmation for the second email, the protester eventually resent the second email with the attachments, but this was done after the deadline for receipt of proposals.

In both cases, the protester attempted to shift blame to the agency for its late submission. In RDT-Sempter Tek JV, the protester argued that it actually delivered its proposal to the designated government location at 1:58 p.m., two whole minutes prior to the 2:00 p.m. deadline. Its argument was that its proposal was in the control of the government prior to the deadline, triggering an exception to the lateness rule. In JV Derichebourg-BMAR & Associates, the protester argued that the agency was unreasonable in failing to notify the protester of a missing attachment. In the protester’s view, because the agency was informed that it would be receiving two emails with attachments, and the second email failed to include an attachment, it was obvious that something was wrong with the second email. GAO rejected both arguments, denying both protests.

The key principle relied upon by GAO in both denials is that it is an offeror’s responsibility to ensure the timely and complete delivery of its proposal. It is the fault of the contractor, not the agency, when an offer is delivered so close to the deadline that a few minutes lost due to waiting for a mailroom attendant is the difference between an on-time and late proposal. Similarly, when an offeror forgets to attach a required document to an email, the blame falls on the offeror, not the agency.

Generally speaking, the government is not looking to do any contractor any favors. Contractors should be very mindful of solicitation deadlines, and remember Coach Coughlin’s philosophy, “if you’re on time, you’re late.” Best practice would be to factor in a cushion for any potential issues with delivery. After all, a crucial step to compete for a government contract is to actually submit a proposal. You can’t win if you’re not in the game.

 

 

Share

Related Posts

GAO’s BID PROTEST – 2020 YEAR IN REVIEW

January 19, 2021

Agencies Must Provide an Accurate Estimate of Requirements in a Solicitation

May 29, 2014

Counting Independent Contractors As Employees Can Lead to Rejection of a Proposal

May 16, 2014

Bad Idea to Assume Agency Will Know What Proposal Was Supposed to Say

May 6, 2014

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Search Bid Protest Weekly

Need help with a bid protest?

Call us at: 703-556-0411 Or fill out this form:

Categories

  • 8(a) Sole Source Awards
  • Acknowledging Amendments
  • Adequately Written Proposal
  • Adverse Agency Action
  • Adverse Impact Analysis
  • Agency Tender
  • Alternate or Previously-Approved Product
  • Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • Ambiguity in Solicitation
  • Attorney's Fees
  • Bad Faith in Evaluation
  • Below-Cost Offer
  • Best Value
  • Beyond the Scope
  • Bias
  • Bid and Proposal Costs
  • Bid Bond
  • Bid Compliance
  • Bid Protest Decisions
  • Bid Protest Jurisdiction
  • Bid Protests
  • Bidding Best Practices
  • Blanket Purchase Agreement
  • Blanket Purchase Order
  • Blog Articles
  • Bona Fide Needs Rule
  • Brand Name or Equal
  • Broad Agency Announcement
  • Brooks Act
  • Bundling or Consolidation
  • Buy American Act
  • Cancellation of a Solicitation
  • Capability of Contractor
  • CCR Registration
  • Certificate of Competency (COC)
  • Certification Requirements
  • Changes Clause
  • Clarifications
  • Clear and Convincing Evidence
  • Clearly Meritorious Protest
  • Clerical Error
  • Commercial Item Acquisition
  • Competitive Range
  • Compliance
  • Conflict of Interest
  • Construction Design-Build
  • Construction Services
  • Contract Administration
  • Contract Modifications
  • Contracting Preference
  • Contractor Responsibility
  • Corporate Capability
  • Corrective Action
  • Cost Accounting System
  • Cost Evaluation
  • Cost Realism
  • Cost Reimbursement Contract
  • Cost-Technical Trade-Off
  • Customary Commercial Practice
  • CVE
  • DCAA Audit
  • Debriefing
  • Default Termination
  • Deficient Price Proposal
  • Delivery Order jurisdiction
  • Delivery Schedule
  • Designated Employee Agent
  • Disclosure of Price
  • Disclosure of Source Selection-Sensitive Information
  • Discussions
  • Disqualification
  • Documentation of Evaluation
  • Domestic Production Requirement
  • Education Center Articles
  • Electronic Filing
  • Evaluation Criteria
  • Evaluations
  • Events
  • Executive Order Compliance
  • Experience of Contractor
  • Experience Requirement
  • Facility Clearance
  • Fair Market Price
  • FASA
  • FedBizOpps
  • Federal Prison Industries (FPI)
  • Filing Deadlines
  • Final Evaluation
  • Final Proposal Revisions
  • Financial Responsibility
  • Fixed Price Contract
  • Former Government Employees
  • FSS Contract
  • GAO Bid Protest Review
  • GAO Jurisdiction
  • GAO Standard of Review
  • Government Contracts
  • Government Office Closings
  • Government Surplus Material
  • GSA Lease
  • HUBZone
  • ID/IQ
  • Impaired Objectivity
  • In-Sourcing
  • Incentive Fee
  • Inclement Weather Delay
  • Incomplete Proposal
  • Incorporation by Reference
  • Incumbent Capture
  • Incumbent Status
  • Independent Government Estimate (IGE)
  • Individual Environmental Report
  • Industrial Mobilization
  • Innovations
  • Interested Party
  • Invitation for Bid
  • Invited Contractor
  • Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act
  • Joint Venture
  • Key Personnel
  • Labor Hours
  • Labor Rate Pricing
  • Late Proposals
  • Late Submissions
  • Level of Effort
  • Licensing Requirements
  • Limitation on Subcontracting
  • Liquidated Damages
  • Lost Proposal
  • Lowest Price Technically Acceptable
  • Mail-Box Rule
  • Management Planning
  • Market Research
  • MAS Contracts
  • Material Misrepresentation
  • Material Solicitation Amendment
  • Material Solicitation Terms
  • Meaningful Discussions
  • Micro-Purchase Threshold
  • Minimum Requirements
  • Misleading Discussions
  • Mistake
  • Mitigation Strategy
  • Multiple Awards
  • NAICS Code
  • National Security
  • Negotiation
  • News
  • Non-Procurement Instruments
  • Novations
  • Offeror Representations
  • OMB Circular A-76
  • Option Exercise
  • Oral Presentations
  • Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI)
  • Page Limitations
  • Past Performance
  • Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS)
  • Performance Based Standards
  • Permits and Responsibilities
  • Personal Conflicts of Interest
  • Post-Award Changes to the Contract
  • Post-Protest Re-Evaluations
  • Practicable Alternative
  • Pre-Award Protest
  • Pre-award vs. Post-award Requirements
  • Pre-Qualification of Offerors
  • Pre-Solicitation Notice
  • Prejudice
  • Price Calculation Error
  • Price Calculation Error
  • Price Evaluation
  • Price of FSS Task Order Quote
  • Price Realism
  • Price Reasonableness
  • Price Reduction
  • Procurement Announcement
  • Procurement Integrity
  • Product Testing
  • Proposal Acceptance Period
  • Proposal Detail
  • Proposal Evaluation
  • Proposal Extension
  • Proposal Standards
  • Proposals
  • Protest Terms of Solicitation
  • Protester Comments
  • Public-Private Competition
  • Randolph-Sheppard Act (RSA)
  • Rate Tenders
  • Re-Certification of Size Status
  • Reconsideration
  • Reevaluation
  • Reevaluation Standards
  • Reimbursed Attorney's Fees
  • Reimbursement of Protest Costs
  • Rejection of Proposal
  • Relaxation or Waiver of Requirement
  • Relevancy of Past Performance
  • Reliance on the Proposal
  • Remedies
  • Requirements Contract
  • Responsibility
  • Responsiveness
  • Restricted Competition
  • Resumes
  • Revision of Proposal
  • Revision of Proposals
  • Risk
  • Rule of Two
  • SBA Status protest
  • Scope of GAO Review
  • SDVOSB Set-Asides
  • Significant Issue Exception
  • Simplified Acquisition Procedures
  • Site Visit
  • Size Determination
  • Size Protest
  • Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program
  • Small Business Set-Asides
  • Small Business Subcontracting Goals
  • Sole-Source Award
  • Solicitation Amendment
  • Solicitation Requirements
  • Source Approval
  • Source Selection Authority
  • Source Selection Decision
  • Source Selection Plan
  • Sources Sought Notice
  • Staffing Plan
  • State and Local Requirements
  • Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA)
  • Subcontract Protest
  • Subcontractor Experience
  • Suspension and Debarment
  • Taking Exception to RFP Requirements
  • Task Orders
  • Teaming Agreement
  • Technical Acceptability
  • Technical Evaluation
  • Technical Evaluation
  • Termination of Award
  • Terms of the Solicitation
  • Timeliness of Protest
  • Timely Filing
  • Timely Performance
  • Timely Proposal Submission
  • Trade Agreement Act
  • Unbalanced Pricing
  • Unduly Restrictive Terms
  • Unequal Access to Information
  • Unequal Treatment of Offerors
  • Uniform Time Act of 1996
  • Unstated Evaluation Criteria
  • Unusual and Compelling Urgency
  • Use of Appropriated Funds
  • Veterans First
  • VIP Database
  • VOSB Set Asides
  • Wage Determination

Get Help


Talk to an
attorney who
specializes
in bid protests:

+1-703-556-0411
Email

Keep up to date
on bid protest
decisions and
policies:

© 2023 Bid Protest Weekly

  • LinkedIn
  • Google +
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Home
  • Bid Protest Ed Center
  • Blog
  • Topics
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Bid Protest Ed Center
    • WHAT is a bid protest?
    • WHO can file a bid protest
    • DO I need an Attorney?
    • WHY Should you file a bid protest?
    • WHEN Must you file a bid protest?
    • WHERE can you file a bid protest?
    • READING the RFP
  • Blog
  • Topics
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • LinkedIn
  • Google +
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

+1-703-556-0411