The “too close at hand” principle allows GAO or the court to find an evaluation unreasonable where an agency fails to consider past performance information it was aware of – even if that information was not in the offeror’s proposal. The principle originates from GAO’s 1997 decision in International Business Systems, Inc., where GAO sustained a protest after finding that an agency unreasonably failed to consider past performance information that “involved the same agency, the same contracting officer, and virtually the same services” as the procurement at issue. GAO held that “some information is simply too close at hand to require offerors to shoulder the inequities that spring from an agency’s failure to obtain, and consider, the information.” Since that decision, the argument has become a common tool in protesters’ challenges to past performance evaluations, though as discussed in “Bid Protest Pitfalls: Three Commonly Misused Arguments at GAO,” the argument is frequently misused by protesters unfamiliar with GAO’s precedent on the issue.
Continue Reading Recent Court Decision Indicates the “Close at Hand” Doctrine is Alive and Well
