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Debriefing to Awardee


AspiringGovKr

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As a matter of practice, my company requests formal debriefings whether we are the successful or unsuccessful awardee.  The most recent written Debriefing included a side by side comparison of our successful offer against the unsuccessful offeror’s proposal. The chart had both company’s adjectival evaluations as well as the total contract value (TCV). My question is whether the unsuccessful offeror’s TCV should have been deemed confidential (and an exception to FOIA disclosure). The technical solution was complicated enough that I could not back into unit prices but it does provide substantial feedback as to their pricing choices and structure. Please provide your learned insight (and references to areas you might suggest I further research if you are so inclined.) I have not distributed the written Debrief as I wanted to research first.  thanks!

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Consider going back to the contracting officer that debriefed you to ask whether the release was intentional.  FAR 15.506( e ) states in part, "Moreover, the debriefing shall not reveal any information...exempt from release under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552)."  Assuming the total contract value is something the Government got from the disappointed offeror, for DoD, it would seem Exemption 3 and 10 USC 2305(g) would be the grounds for withholding the pricing information if it were the subject of a FOIA request.  Civilian agencies may have a similar statute.

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7 hours ago, AspiringGovKr said:

 The chart had both company’s adjectival evaluations as well as the total contract value (TCV). My question is whether the unsuccessful offeror’s TCV should have been deemed confidential (and an exception to FOIA disclosure). 

IAW FAR 15.506 (d)(2) a debriefing shall include the overall evaluated cost or price (including unit prices) and technical rating, if applicable, of the successful offeror and the debriefed offeror, and past performance information on the debriefed offeror.

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Thanks! The FAR is clear that an unsuccessful offeror  at a minimum should receive the evaluated total price and technical rating of the awardee but I cannot find any guidance (or reason) for the govt to share the evaluated total price and technical ratings of all the unsuccessful offerors to the awardee. (My situation is DoD in case there is a DFAR impacting this scenario.) 

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Did the solicitation contain the "Rights in Bid or Proposal Information" provision at DFARS 252.227-7016?  If so, I'm curious whether the Government contracting officer thought sharing the disappointed offeror's TCV in a debriefing was consistent with paragraph (b)(2) of the provision, which provides, "By submission of its offer, the Offeror agrees that the Government...[e]xcept as provided in paragraph (d) of this clause, shall use information contained in the bid or proposal only for evaluation purposes and shall not disclose, directly or indirectly, such information to any person including potential evaluators, unless that person has been authorized by the head of the agency, or his or her designee, or the Contracting Officer to receive such information."

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1 hour ago, AspiringGovKr said:

ut I cannot find any guidance (or reason) for the govt to share the evaluated total price...of all the unsuccessful offerors to the awardee. 

Under the facts as you've presented them, I can't think of a reason either.  Maybe the PCO thought the evaluated price was removed enough from the prices contained in the offeror's proposals that releasing the Government's calculation of evaluated price didn't amount to indirectly releasing proposed prices.

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