Overview
FAR Subpart 15.5 establishes the mandatory procedures for notifying offerors of their exclusion from or success within a competitive acquisition. It provides a framework for preaward and postaward debriefings, ensuring transparency and fairness in the source selection process while protecting proprietary and confidential business information.
Key Rules
- Notification Timelines:
- Preaward: Contracting Officers (CO) must notify offerors promptly when they are excluded from the competitive range.
- Postaward: Written notification must be provided to unsuccessful offerors within 3 days after contract award.
- Small Business Set-Asides: For small business programs (HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOSB, etc.), a preaward notice is required to allow unsuccessful offerors the opportunity to challenge the size or status of the apparently successful offeror.
- Debriefing Request Window: To receive a debriefing, an offeror must submit a written request within 3 days of receiving a notice of exclusion or notice of award.
- Debriefing Content Limits:
- Required: Must include the government’s evaluation of the offeror’s weaknesses, the winner’s price/technical rating, and the rationale for the award.
- Prohibited: Must not include point-by-point comparisons with other offers, trade secrets, confidential manufacturing processes, or names of past performance references.
- Delayed Debriefings: A CO may delay a preaward debriefing until after award for compelling reasons, but this may impact the offeror's protest timelines.
Responsibilities
- Contracting Officer (CO):
- Issuing all preaward and postaward notifications.
- Chairing debriefing sessions and documenting the official summary in the contract file.
- Ensuring no proprietary or prohibited information is disclosed during debriefings.
- Executing the award using appropriate forms (SF 26, SF 33, or OF 307).
- Evaluation Team (Technical/Cost Evaluators):
- Providing support and technical expertise during debriefing sessions to explain evaluation findings.
- Offerors:
- Submitting timely written requests (within 3 days) for debriefings to preserve their rights.
- Reviewing preaward notices in small business set-asides to determine if a size status protest is warranted.
Practical Implications
- Protest Strategy: The "3-day rule" for requesting a debriefing is a "hard" deadline in the federal contracting world. Missing this window usually results in the loss of a "required" debriefing, which is a prerequisite for triggering an automatic stay of performance during a GAO protest.
- Market Intelligence: Even for unsuccessful offerors, postaward notifications and debriefings provide critical competitive intelligence. Learning the "overall evaluated price" and "technical rating" of the winner helps firms refine their pricing models and technical approaches for future captures.
- Contractual Discrepancies: Per FAR 15.504, if the final award document contains any terms different from the offeror's last proposal, both parties must sign it. Contractors should carefully compare the award document against their final proposal revision (FPR) before performance to ensure no unauthorized changes were inserted.
- Administrative Record: The requirement for an "official summary" of the debriefing ensures that there is a clear administrative record in the event of a legal challenge or GAO protest, protecting both the agency and the integrity of the procurement.