Federal agencies have broad discretion in determining whether to cancel a solicitation and may typically do so, provided they can establish a reasonable basis for their cancellation decision. Thus, the government may properly cancel a solicitation for various reasons anytime
Under the Small Business Act and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act, federal agencies must publish notices of proposed contract actions and modifications exceeding $25,000 on the System of Award Management (SAM) unless an exception listed in Federal Acquisition
When acquiring commercial products, the federal government must give preference to customary commercial practices. To implement this preference, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) instructs the government to only use contract clauses that are consistent with customary commercial practices. One such
Bid protest adjudicative forums such as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have consistently held that a proposal that fails to meet a material solicitation requirement is considered technically unacceptable and cannot form the basis of an award. When included in
It is well established that the U.S. government may only enter into contracts through the authorized actions of its Contracting Officers (COs), who have actual authority to bind the government. In contrast, however, contractors may be bound by the actions
When entering federal contracts, the government acts in a proprietary capacity and owes contractors certain express and implied obligations. One such implied obligation is to disclose to the contractor facts and information vital to performance under the contract. Under what
Solicitations for federal contracts and their included Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) clauses often direct contractors to complete representations and certifications relevant to the acquisition. Depending on the solicitation, contractors may have to complete and maintain certain representations and certifications in
When interpreting the terms of a government contract, contractors should generally look for the “plain-meaning” of the contract, assigning words their ordinary meaning. However, an equally important rule of federal contract interpretation requires a “whole-text” interpretation of the contract within
The apportionment of risk of increased performance costs in a government contract depends primarily on the type of contract and its included clauses. If a specifically included contract clause assigns the financial risk of an event on either the government
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has strict timeliness rules for submission of bid protests. Under these timeliness rules, post-award protests must typically be filed no later than 10 days after the basis of the protest is known or should have