Spam Filter Prevented Bid from Being Received

August 22, 2016

Agency Spam Filter Excludes Proposal; Offeror Loses Protest

Source: SmallGovCon, Steven Koprince, August 1, 2016

An agency’s spam filter prevented an offeror’s proposal from reaching the Contracting Officer in time to be considered for award–and the GAO denied the offeror’s protest of its exclusion.

A recent GAO bid protest decision demonstrates the importance of confirming that a procuring agency has received an electronically submitted proposal because even if the proposal is blocked by the agency’s own spam filter, the agency might not be required to consider it.

GAO’s decision in Blue Glacier Management Group, Inc., B-412897 (June 30, 2016) involved a Treasury Department RFQ for cybersecurity defense services. The RFQ was issued as a small business set-aside under GSA Schedule 70.

The RFQ required proposals to be submitted by email no later than 2:00 p.m. EST on November 9, 2015. The RFQ advised that the size limitation for electronic submissions was 25MB.

Blue Glacier Management Group, Inc. electronically submitted its proposal at 10:55 a.m. EST on the due date. The total size of BG’s attachments was below the 25MB limitation specified in the RFQ.

But unbeknownst to BG or the contracting officer, the email was captured in the agency’s spam filter. The contracting officer did not receive the proposal email or any type of quarantine/spam notification. Five other proposals were timely received from other offerors without incident. READ MORE….

 Contact your nearest PTAC with your questions about submitting bids electronically.

 

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