Possible Corruption of the Award Process. Am I overreacting?

[KeithB18]

Situation: I have a purchase request for commercial services. My client would like to use a single source (large business), decentralized BPA to obtain the services. Approximate value of the purchase is $220K. I asked for a quote based on BPA pricing last week (say the 12th of June) and received the quote early this week. I have not gotten to creating the call order yet, because of other, higher priority items.

Issue: The quote is for exactly the amount of the government estimate, down to the penny. Additionally, I was forwarded an email from the BPA holder sent to a program person asking if the program person could check on the call order award. That email was dated today. The email strongly suggested that the program office and the contractor have been discussing the project regularly. The technical evaluation is extremely weak (one sentence).

Discussion: I try not to be naive about such things; I know that program office personnel and contractors talk regularly. But for me, this one seems too much to ignore. I only agreed to utilize the BPA for expediency's sake--the services can be obtained from any responsible financial analysis firm; i.e. there is no reason to go to a large business. I also strongly suspect that the contractor wrote the statement of work and communicated regularly with the program office about the proposed budget, though I can't prove any of that.

Proposed Solution: I would like to cancel my request for call order proposal with this large business and release it via GSA e-Buy to small business vendors in the same field. I'd require the program office to develop evaluation criteria and a method for evaluating proposals.

The justification for canceling the original request for call order quote would be the inappropriate communication between the contractor and the program office. The drawback is that this would cause significant backlash as the "champion" of this effort is a significant figure in my agency. I've not been afraid in the past to take on such risks, but I've never challenged this particular SES.

So what does WIFCON think of my proposed approach? Did I leave out facts that you need for context? Do you see this phenomenon at you agency?

[Guest Vern Edwards]

The "government estimate" was undoubtedly based on an informal quote from the BPA holder, which is not unusual. The fact that the BPA holder called to inquire is also not unusual. They probably gave the quote to your client some time ago and want to know whether the job is a go or not. That's reasonable. Some of the work may already have been done. No big deal.

Could something bad be going on? Yes, but you can't justify that conclusion or even that suspicion based on the information you have provided.

I wouldn't do the e-Buy, not for a $220,000 job. Your client wants the particular contractor for a reason. If you give them someone else they are going to be unhappy. A better approach would be to informally, but openly, discuss your concerns about improper conduct with your client, preferably face-to-face, and try to understand why they need the work and why they need it from that particular company. Try to judge whether it's legit based on their response.