Questions and answers period
Also called: Q&A period, Questions deadline, Industry questions
Updated
What is Questions and answers period?
The questions and answers period is the window, set in the solicitation, during which offerors may send written questions to the contracting officer about ambiguities, conflicts or gaps in the solicitation. Answers are usually shared with all offerors, often through an amendment, and questions sent after the deadline may go unanswered.
How the Q&A period works
The solicitation names the questions deadline, the format and the address, usually the contracting officer or contract specialist by email. After the solicitation is released, the contracting officer must be the focal point of any exchange with potential offerors, and information necessary to prepare proposals is furnished to all of them, typically as an amendment (FAR 15.201(f)).
That is why contact with other agency staff about the procurement stops once the solicitation is out, and why answers are published without naming who asked.
What to ask
Good questions point to real problems: conflicts between Section L and Section M, a page limit that cannot hold the required content, a missing attachment, an unclear labor category or a requirement that can be read two ways. Cite the paragraph and page, propose a reading, and ask the government to confirm it.
Common mistakes
Missing the deadline, asking questions whose answers reveal your strategy to competitors, and not updating the compliance matrix when the answers arrive.
Plan questions early. The shred and the first read of the outline usually surface the real problems, and the questions deadline often falls within the first week or two after release. Collect questions in one list with the paragraph, page and proposed reading, review them as a team and send one clean set.
Questions and answers period in ProposalWorkspace
The ProposalWorkspace Q&A Center finds the ambiguities, conflicts and gaps in the RFP and drafts questions for the contracting officer, each linked to its source. You review every question, send them from your own email, mark them sent, and answers in a later amendment are matched back to the questions.
Questions and answers period: questions and answers
Who do I send solicitation questions to?
To the contracting officer or contract specialist named in the solicitation, in the format and by the deadline it states. After release, the contracting officer is the focal point for exchanges (FAR 15.201(f)).
Will other offerors see my questions?
Usually the questions and answers are shared with all offerors, often without naming who asked, because information needed to prepare proposals must go to everyone.
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