I need help! An employee of my company altered our pricing submission to screw up our pricing for a full and open non commercial solicitation before submitting it and then that employee quit. It was clearly a malicious act before that employee quit. We didn't even realize this until the contracting officer sent us a clarification. This could be a great opportunity lost for us, what can we do now?!?! 

If your proposed price is not what you intended, respond to the clarification by saying so. You should also add what your intended price was.

Assuming this is a FAR part 15 procurement, the contracting officer will then have to decide whether to open discussions and let you submit a proposal revision.

 

Don,

Thank you! We submitted our response like you suggested. We've been trying to Google this problem but I guess we're the only ones that are willing to admit it's happened to them!! It's super duper obvious that the pricing isn't what we intended since it's not what the solicitation told us to do and the clarification we received told us it could "remove us from consideration for non-compliance with the instructions" and for failing to provide a document to explain why our pricing didn't match the instructions. The way the RFP read was pretty much do what we told you to do for pricing or tell us why you didn't. So why would we not do what the solicitation says and not tell them why if we know that would remove us?! 

 

The closest thing my partner has been able to find is a court case that talked about a Contracting Officer who didn't allow someone to submit a document after they found that the document was a copy of a different document rather than what they wanted submitted and the Contracting Officer was wrong to not allow it but we can't find that case again

The contracting officer has to work with the cards as dealt.  You (or your employee) submitted your proposal.  The contracting officer asked for a clarification and you explained the sabotage.  Now, the contracting officer has to decide whether to (1) award the contract to someone else, or (2) open discussions to allow you to correct the error in your proposal.  Either one can be an honorable decision, based on the competition received.  His or her decision will be based on the Government's best interest, not yours.

If your former employer harmed you, that is a matter between the two of you.  The contracting officer has no duty to allow you to submit an updated corrected proposal.

On ‎11‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 1:42 PM, Helpneeded said:

An employee of my company altered our pricing submission to screw up our pricing for a full and open non commercial solicitation before submitting it

Was the employee authorized to submit the proposal?  What controls do you have in place to ensure that proposals state what you intended and are consistent with solicitation requirements?  Why did those controls not work here?  My point is that you may share some responsibility for what happened.  As a consequence, you may have been negligent in regard to the submission of the proposal.  These are some things that the contracting officer should consider in making a decision on what course of action to follow.

1 minute ago, Retreadfed said:

Was the employee authorized to submit the proposal?  What controls do you have in place to ensure that proposals state what you intended and are consistent with solicitation requirements?  Why did those controls not work here?  My point is that you may share some responsibility for what happened.  As a consequence, you may have been negligent in regard to the submission of the proposal.  These are some things that the contracting officer should consider in making a decision on what course of action to follow.

Indeed. Who reviewed the proposal prior to submission? Do you have a Delegation of Authority matrix in place?

Also, if the company is harmed then you may have a basis to take further legal action against the former employee.