POST AWARD - "The Agency issued a sole-source award to my competitor, do I have grounds to protest?"

1. Did the agency publish a notice of intent to issue sole source award? YES/NO

2. If you responded YES to 1, did it adequately describe its requirements?

3. If you responded YES to 1, did the agency afford you sufficient opportunity to respond to the sole-source notice? Did you respond but were ignored?

4. Did the agency have to issue a sole-source award, due to its lake of advanced planning? YES/NO

5. Did the Agency make a sole-source award to prevent the loss of current year funding? YES/NO

6. Did the Agency attempt to solicit from as many sources as practicable?

We must show that the agency knew or should have known your capabilities to service the contract, but did not adequately justify your exclusion from consideration of it.

When an agency chooses to invoke an exception to the requirement for full and open competition, such as urgency, it is only permitted to acquire enough goods and services to satisfy its immediate, minimum requirements. In other words, the agency must limit its J&A to its immediate requirements.

1. Did the agency prepare a J&A?

2. Did the J&A provide reasonable justification? *

3. Was the J&A accurate and consistent in its reasoning throughout?

4. If the J&A cites urgency, is their urgency legitimate? (For example, if they said time is of the essence but made an award 8 months after the J&A was executed and deliveries under the contract were schedule to be made over a year after the contract award, you may have a colorable argument that the agency lacked urgency to start with and made an inappropriate sole source award.)

6. 
   

*Note: if they are relying on the unusual and compelling urgency exception, the agency may prepare the J&A after contract award if preparation of the J & a before award would unreasonably delay the procurement.

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