Debriefings: A Modest Proposal

Centre Law & Consulting – So, I was asking myself, what about government contracts drives me up a wall?  More particularly, what is most frustrating to me, as a practicing procurement lawyer?  Easy: debriefings.  We (at least contractor “we”) have participated in debriefings where the government “script” was some variation on: “Your proposal was terrible.  Here is [insert the absolute minimum to fill up a page or five minutes of phone time, no matter the size or complexity of the procurement].  You were lucky we didn’t laugh you out of the competitive range.”  Or, a debriefing where the time spent on ground rules, and what won’t be discussed, is longer (often much longer) than the substance.