Joseph C. Kovars and Jackson B. Boyd of Ober|Kaler's Construction Group recently helped a client win a bid protest in Connecticut and secure a contract worth over $153,000,000 to improve and expand a water pollution control facility in the state.

At bid opening, our client was the second low bidder behind a joint venture. For this procurement, there were very specific requirements in the invitation for bids (IFB) that each member of a joint venture team had to meet individually if the team as a whole would be considered eligible to win the contract award. Each joint venture team member needed experience on at least four projects valued at over $40 million and experience on a fifth project valued at over $80 million. Each team member also had to be individually prequalified by the State of Connecticut to ensure that it met certain minimum standards.

Our client filed a protest after bid opening, arguing that not all members of the low bidder’s joint venture team met the specific experience and prequalification requirements called for in the IFB for the project. The procurement agency agreed and rejected the joint venture’s bid, finding that one of the team members did not have sufficient individual experience on the type of large dollar projects required by the IFB. As a result, our client – who was the next low bidder and satisfied all requirements in the IFB – was awarded the contract.

While this was a major victory for our client, there is an important lesson to keep in mind from the outcome. Government agencies (whether federal, state, or local) have broad discretion to establish specific requirements that all bidders must meet, provided that the requirements properly reflect the agencies’ needs. This is especially true on complex, high dollar contracts, like the one our client won to improve and expand a water pollution control facility in Connecticut. In such cases, the prequalification, experience, licensing, or other requirements for the project may differ from those that you are used to seeing in other public procurements. For example, agencies may allow joint ventures to rely on the collective experience of their team members in submitting bids for some projects, but require that all team members individually satisfy the experience requirements on other projects. Before you spend time and money preparing a bid, make sure you fully understand the specific requirements that an agency has requested in the IFB for the project.