Question

Suggest the most significant manner in which the cost of the solicitation process adds to the bottom-line in the initial bid for a government contract. Justify your response.

Determine the steps in the sealed bidding process. Next, create an argument for or against the sealed bidding process as a method of lowering the government’s potential expense for a good or service. Justify your response with one example.

Answer 1

ANSWER:

There are two sides of the bottom line for the initial bid. First is the cost which will be governed primarily by how detail and extensive is the solicitation process - i.e. the cost of administration for the solicitation. More the analysis and deliberation, higher is the cost. But the second aspect is the advantage or gain the government is getting through the solicitation process. Note that by the solicitation, the competition among the bids of different contractors is encouraged resulting in a lower bid price and higher quality of the underlying matter of the contract. Once the solicitation process is in detail, the competition is increased, and the government gets the best benefit to cost ratio possible. Therefore, in order to ensure that an optimum level of advantage can be extracted, the solicitation process should simultaneously be effective and efficient.