ARTICLE · 21 JULY 2015

Access To Pre-Solicitation Information Without Mitigation Plan: A Recipe For Rescission

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

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The Court of Federal Claims ("CFC") recently made clear that mere access to pre-solicitation information creates a potential Organizational Conflict of Interest ("OCI") that can invalidate an award.

United StatesGovernment, Public Sector

Amy Elizabeth Garber

The Court of Federal Claims ("CFC") recently made clear that mere access to pre-solicitation information creates a potential Organizational Conflict of Interest ("OCI") that can invalidate an award. In Monterey Consultants, Inc. v. U.S. and Loch Harbour Group, Inc., the CFC upheld the rescission of a Department of Veterans Affairs ("VA") task order award based on a contractor's possible access to pre-solicitation documents.

The potential OCI arose in 2013, when the VA awarded Monterey Consultants, Inc. ("Monterey") a blanket purchase agreement ("BPA") to perform processing and verification services for the VA's Center for Verification and Evaluation ("CVE") and the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization ("OSDBU"). After the BPA expired, the VA replaced some of the BPA services with two task orders: the subjects of the underlying bid protest in Monterey. The Request for Quotes ("RFQ") for the task orders sought "administrative, paralegal, project

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