MILLER ON PROCUREMENT.

**PROTESTS**

I have recently received several calls wanting help with protests. It is astounding how little CEOs understand about this process and they never, ever learn the process in advance. They always wait until the 11th hour and want it fast and cheap and they want it to be a winner. Their understanding of the subject is about equal to my understanding of the causes of cancer of the brain and how many types exist.

In order to protest you must understand the ten-day rule. You can protest to the agency, to GAO to the district courts and to the court of federal claims.

You only win about 10% unless you can rifle shot your complaint. You can win if they award to the wrong guy, you protest and you were next in line. Otherwise the IBM rule gets you. You can win if they don't obey the FAR or if they don't obey their own RFP or if you can prove dastardly deeds like bribes.

You almost never win if it is the agency tech viewpoint versus yours. It is a fun and complex process and every firm should do one or two a year. If you don't, you are part of the problem. And get skilled legal help.

**FEDBIZOPPS**

You may be behind on this subject as I have been due to vacation. Remember the ill-fated FACNET. Stupid, poorly design, insecure, lost bids, adverse court decisions and just plain dumb. FACNET was designed with the idea that all bids below $100,000 and above $2500 would be reserved for small businesses who could find it on the system. Stop and think what large or small business wants to compete with the world. They were routinely getting 50 or 100 bids, which meant no profit, little service, much fraud and huge disenchantment.

Before Govt employees are dumb enough to create such a system they should ask the question why not compete every GS-13 job in the world for the entire world based on the reverse auction craze. That is if the incumbent at FAA is earning $67,000 a year I might bid, if qualified, $61,000 and take his job away.

That was FACNET and it was a huge failure.

Now we have FedBiz Opps which will go into effect as of Jan 1, 2002. So far the promise out-weighs the problems. At one point the Govt had at least 42 independent bulletin boards that Ft. Swampy might employ. It took two or three employees all day to just cover the potential opps.

Now the powers that be, to make up for FACNET, intend to have all agencies use an automated system as described in the Federal Register of May 16 and the CBD will go away for bids above $25,000. Below $25,000 the old small purchase rules still apply.

Now the big question is how well will it work? Have you ever tried to access the FAR on the GSA site? Often it is down. The last time I got on the particular section I wanted was absent. Someone truncated the section.

And it allows primes to use the system but apparently only if they wish. They seldom wish. They don't want anyone actually bidding, or seeing out of scope contract Mods etc. do they?

I would really be impressed with FedBizOpps if it were mandatory for primes to use as well. I was involved a couple of years ago with a prime on a large contract where they had already made their technical selection. One of their yo yos told our guy that this prime knew everything there was to know about storage systems. Wrong. We ended up being the sub with a better system and saved the Feds more than $1 million. Can you imagine the gall of a me guy saying he knows everything about anything?

The larger question is this, "Has the CBD and now Bizopps become a joke? By that I mean is there anything of value ever in the CBD based on the fact that the experts who did reform removed such paragraphs in FAR part 15 which prohibited allowing any vendor to know before all know. Now the techies can talk to the preferred vendor for 1000 hours and talk to you for one hour. Or more commonly they illegally amend existing contracts and get their favorite prime to sole source the item.

I have not found anything meaningful in the CBD for a very long time. Have you? I would like to see GAO do a report on this and answer such questions as to what percentage of the spending arises from CBD notices and how often does the agency do business with a new vendor previously unknown to that agency?

And most importantly, how often do they award to a vendor with which they have had no discussions regarding this procurement?

**CHECKLIST**

Does your firm have a bid checklist? Most firms will have a few rookies working on each bid. In my mind a rookie is someone with less than ten years of experience or less than $100 million in bids won. You don't need a checklist if you do 100 bids a day and they average $5000 or so.

The checklist helps you increase the odds on the big ones. Most RFPs will have incorrect FAR cites, for instance. Or illegal statements and requirements. You can't afford to miss these. I went to help a client with an Air Force bid once worth about $25 million. They were the incumbents and this bid which is now up for re-compete is about 35% of their annual business. If you lose you will be in dire straights. I looked at the bid document from the AF and something did not smell good. I asked for a copy of their FAR and they had none. Imagine playing 5-card draw for $25 million and you don't know the rules.

Everyone whose firm has no official bid checklist can send me $10. Those who do can send it and I will pick a "best of the breed" and give that firm two free spots in our next seminar (August 15,2001). That could be worth $600. Or you can request a copy by mail of our list and tailor it specifically for your business.

Good Luck.