Twenty-One Mistakes in Submitting Proposals for Government Contracts

Ronald S. MartaUniversity of Houston

Procurement Technical Assistance Center

I.M. Dufus• Mister • Ms.

No. 1I do not have an active registration

in the System for Award Management (SAM)

No. 2I did not consider the due date.

No. 3I did not read the solicitation

ten times.

No. 4I did not know the difference between RFQ, IFB, and RFP.

No. 5I did not consider the type of contract

anticipated.

No. 6I did not consider evaluation criteria.

No 7I did not follow instructions contained in the

solicitation.

No. 8I did not attend the preproposal conference.

No. 9I did not contact the point of contact with

questions that I had.

No. 10I prepared a proposal for work that I was

not fully qualified to perform.

No. 11I did not understand cost or pricing data.

No. 12I did not have my indirect rates

calculated.

No. 13I did not remove unallowable costs from my

proposal.

No. 14I included unreasonable costs in my

proposal.

No. 15I submitted an incomplete proposal.

No. 16

I submitted a poorly written proposal.

No. 17My proposal did not look professional.

No. 18I did not include relevant

information about my firm and its experience in my proposal.

No. 19I did not have an “acceptable”

accounting system.

No. 20I did not consider amendments.

No. 21I did not submit my offer in time.

“Gee, I had no idea.”

• Mister Dufus • Ms. Dufus