How a Strong OCI Mitigation Plan Can Save Your Bid (Or: How to Avoid Getting Smacked with a Protest and Looking Like an Idiot)

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely my own and do not reflect the views of any sane, rational human being. Proceed at your own risk.

There are a lot of great ways to lose a government contract. You can mess up pricing. You can miss a submission deadline because your internet went down right before uploading. You can even have your CEO “accidentally” insult a procurement official at an industry event (ask me how I know).

But nothing kills a bid faster—and with more exquisite bureaucratic precision—than an Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI).

Yes, OCI: The silent bid-killer. The fine print landmine. The thing that makes contracting officers clutch their pearls and whisper, “I’d love to award this to you, but compliance says no.”

The worst part? OCI doesn’t care how good your proposal is. You could have built the perfect solution, priced it at a discount, and delivered it with a bow on top. But if someone, somewhere, thinks you had an unfair advantage? Boom. Bid disqualified. Hope you didn’t already spend that commission check.

So let’s talk about how to not have your proposal tossed like last week’s tuna salad. Because trust me, the competition is counting on you to screw this up.

OCI 101: The “Because the FAR Said So” Edition

For the uninitiated (or those who wisely avoid government acronyms like the plague), the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) has a whole section (9.5) dedicated to OCI. Why? Because Uncle Sam is deeply afraid that contractors might be, well… too good at what they do.

The government breaks OCI into three fun categories:

1. Impaired Objectivity – When you’re in a position to review your own work. This is the government’s way of saying, “We don’t trust you to grade your own homework.”

2. Unequal Access to Information – When you somehow got inside scoop that other bidders didn’t. If you know what’s in the agency’s budget before the RFP drops, congrats—you played yourself.

3. Biased Ground Rules – When you helped design the RFP in a way that mysteriously favors your own solution. (What a coincidence! It requires exactly the software we sell!)

Now, let’s get into some real-world trainwrecks.

Case #1: The IT Firm That “Accidentally” Wrote the RFP

A big-name IT company (name withheld to protect the guilty) was bidding on a contract to modernize a federal case management system. Small problem: before the RFP dropped, they had been supporting the agency with—wait for it—drafting requirements for that same system.

Cue protest from an angry competitor. Cue a government investigation. Cue the contracting officer realizing, Oh yeah, this company totally shaped this thing.

Result? Disqualified. Competitor wins by default. IT company gets to explain to their shareholders why they just lit millions of dollars on fire.

Lesson Learned:

If you’ve had any role in shaping a solicitation, even indirectly, you need a firewall plan so strict it makes Fort Knox look like a convenience store. That means documented recusal policies, separate proposal teams, and maybe even hiring an exorcist—because once your fingerprints are on an RFP, you’re in trouble.

Case #2: The Engineering Firm That Knew Too Much

An engineering firm won a contract to do technical assessments on infrastructure projects. All was well and good until a major construction project came up, and they figured, Hey, we should bid on that too!

The problem? Their previous contract gave them access to proprietary cost estimates, internal budgets, and government strategy docs. It was like getting a sneak peek at the answers to a test—except everyone else was taking it blind.

One protest later, the agency agreed: OCI violation, bid thrown out.

Lesson Learned:

If you have inside knowledge that others don’t, you either (a) don’t bid or (b) create an airtight mitigation plan. That means showing, in writing, that your proposal team was sealed off from the folks with inside info—preferably in a way that involves more documentation than a NASA launch.

Case #3: The Consultant Who Evaluated Their Own Work

A consulting firm was hired to evaluate an agency’s program. A year later, the agency put out a solicitation to implement the program’s recommendations. The same firm put in a bid, thinking, Well, we did a great job on that assessment—who better to handle implementation?

The government’s response? Nice try.

They were immediately disqualified for impaired objectivity, because—surprise!—they were now in a position to review and execute their own recommendations.

Lesson Learned:

If you’re in the business of giving the government advice, you cannot also be in the business of profiting off that advice without serious mitigation efforts. We’re talking:

✔ Independent third-party reviews

✔ Completely separate business units

✔ A sworn affidavit promising you won’t judge your own work (okay, maybe not, but close)

How to Actually Avoid This Mess

Here’s the deal: OCI is predictable. It’s avoidable. And if you lose a bid over it, that’s on you.

The best companies don’t just deal with OCI when a protest hits—they plan for it from Day One. How?

1. Do an OCI Check Before You Even Touch the RFP – Have a compliance review before you sink 200 labor hours into a bid you might not even be eligible for.

2. Use Firewalls (the Paper Kind, Not the IT Kind) – If you have potentially conflicting work, put up internal barriers before the protest lawyers come knocking.

3. Talk to the Contracting Officer (Before They Talk to Your Competitor) – If you suspect a conflict, bring it up early. Some issues can be waived. Some can’t. But better you control the narrative.

4. Document Everything – If you get protested and your defense is “Trust us, we followed the rules,” you already lost. Show your work.

OCI is a Preventable Headache

Look, government contracting is already a war zone. You’re battling price pressures, incumbents, and a proposal process that makes doing your own taxes look fun. The last thing you want is to get disqualified over an OCI issue that could have been fixed with a little planning.

A strong mitigation plan isn’t just about compliance—it’s about winning. So do your OCI homework, build airtight firewalls, and don’t be the next case study in a blog like this.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go triple-check my own firewall policies. Just in case.

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