(Editor’s Note. In this competitive marketplace, there are a lot of attempts to bid prices that "cheat the system", resulting in "wage busting", overly optimistic overhead projections and plain "buy ins". These practices are particularly prevalent in professional services contracts where the solicitation lists total hours to be provided and offerors are asked to merely propose base salary rates, overhead and profit.

How do you compete in this environment? The following article identifies some practical measures you can take to lessen the impact of unfair competition for professional services. It is based upon an interesting article we recently found that was written in September 1994 by Louis Victorino and William Molinski of the law firm of Freid, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in the Briefing Papers. The insights are as valid today as back then and we have updated some of their ideas to correspond to subsequent regulation changes (e.g. uncompensated overtime). Though the authors perspective is to protect contractors from "unfair" low bidders, we will address many of the methods bidders may use to "game the system" and what contractors can do to combat such tactics. Though the article explicitly addresses professional services it is quite relevant for other types of contracts.)

For some actions, contractors will require cooperation from the Government that the Federal Acquisition Regulations provide for (e.g. recommended language in the solicitation) while others relate to unilateral actions contractors can take to increase their chances of success. We will address compensation plans, key employee resumes and uncompensated overtime and recommend actions.

Compensation Plans

The offeror may promise to hire the highest quality professional, including a promise to hire the best of the incumbent’s personnel. The source selection official will often analyze the offeror’s compensation plan to determine is it is sufficient to attract and retain quality professionals.

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