NEW DOD DE-BRIEF RULES SHOULD BECOME STANDARD ACROSS GOVERNMENT

Post-award de-briefings are becoming more robust at the Department of Defense thanks to a Class Deviation issued by DOD in late March (FAR Deviation 2018-00011).  The changes are intended to ensure that useful information is actually transmitted in a de-briefing, something that would benefit all federal agencies.  Talk to any contractor and they’ll tell you that most current de-briefings are about as useful as a Betamax.  While CO’s see de-briefings as a burden, bad ones can actually cost the government.  Contractors are much more likely to go ahead with a protest if they feel like they didn’t get the information they needed in a de-briefing.  This can delay the implementation of a needed project, harming an agency’s ability to meet its mission and adding potentially adding cost to the project overall.  The new DOD rules allow contractors to submit additional questions after an initial de-brief and require DOD to respond in writing to such questions within five business days.  Significantly, the protest clock doesn’t start to run until those answers are delivered.  Coming soon are even better enhancements, such as a requirement to disclose the agency’s written source selection award determination for large dollar contracts.  These are positive changes meant to ensure that de-briefs actually serve the purpose for which they were created.  As such, it would be a best practice, and a time-saver, for all agencies to adopt similar rules