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Responding jointly to Federal RFI transparency experience?


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Responding jointly to Federal RFI  transparency experience?

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Thanks for reviewing my threads.

We started working with a company, who has prior experience with Federal agency. They came to us for a joint RFI response to count our experience, where we added our experience/capability with the agency/industry (application development) in the RFI. We executed a NDA for this joint response.

They said initially, they would be sending consolidated RFI response for a review , after making the consolidate RFI response (ours +theirs).

After we sent all our responses/details , they responded saying "As a policy we do not share the final submission to the customer"

We are scratching our head about these changes. We executed NDA on good faith expecting transparency. Their response/action after completing our piece creating a discomfort.

Is this a normal practice ?

What is the level of transparency, we can expect in this situation ?

We worked with other companies without any NDAs that showed transparency.

Thanks for your guidance.
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I wouldn’t say that practice is normal but it’s not unheard of.  Some companies are very protective of their processes, procedures, methodologies, and the like.  They likely see little benefit in sharing their response but envision a large potential downside.

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8 hours ago, Don Mansfield said:

You could respond with: "As a policy, we notify the agency when we are not shown the final submission and inform them that we cannot vouch for any statements made about our company."

I think that would be the end of the relationship with the other company. I would expect this would result in an award being unfavorable and could also lead to a lawsuit depending on the wording of the NDA.

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On 9/9/2022 at 6:13 PM, MDRI said:

Responding jointly to Federal RFI  transparency experience?

==============================================

We executed NDA on good faith expecting transparency. Their response/action after completing our piece creating a discomfort.

Is this a normal practice ?

What is the level of transparency, we can expect in this situation ?

We worked with other companies without any NDAs that showed transparency.

Thanks for your guidance.

When executing an NDA, you should propose and negotiate language in it that expresses your expectations. I have not seen the NDA. I am doubting that it indicates your company is a "joint" responder to the RFI. If it did,  you should have signed the RFI, and of course,  you would have then seen it. In my experience with a major prime contractor, I am not aware that we ever "shared" our RFI or proposal submittal with a potential subcontractor. The submittal is potentially "competition sensitive" and therefore easier to just not share it at all than to have to decide when sharing it with what company may be an acceptable risk. If it was to be shared, the NDA would indicate that your company agrees to keep it confidential.

Edited by Neil Roberts
last sentence incomplete 3rd sentence sp. error
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