A procuring agency acted unreasonably by leaving a voicemail for a winning bidder requiring confirmation of the bid within 45 minutes of the voicemail.

In a recent GAO bid protest decision, the GAO found that the winning bidder had already confirmed its bid by responding to a Bid Validation request sent by the FedBid electronic reverse auction system.  Under these circumstances, the agency’s second request for a bid validation – with a very short response time – was improper.

The GAO’s decision in AeroSage LLC, B-409627 (July 2, 2014) involved a Bureau of Prisons (BOP) request for quotations for the next-day delivery of 6,000 gallons of fuel for the FCC Coleman Federal Prison in Coleman, Florida.  The RFQ was issued as a small business set-aside and was posted on the FedBid website as a reverse auction.  The RFQ called for award to the lowest-priced, technically acceptable quotation.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/gaobidprotests/gao-45-minute-bid-confirmation-deadline-was-unreasonable/