RFP Questions & Answers

I think yer asking if you need to amend the RFP to extend the due date,

so people have enuf time to respond before proposals are due.

there's nothin' in law or regulation, except that you should use good judgment.

In this day of instant communications,

if you publish Q&A that don't make big changes (what's big ?)

then over 24 hours (not just overnight) is plenty of time.

But if you are asking potential offerors who have already developed a competitive proposal to make big (? impact over $ 1 M ?) changes,

I'd say give them at least 2 full workdays to respond.

Remember,

you don't have to answer questions at all, even if they are timely.

But giving offerors 2 days to respond now, before a contract is signed,

could get you a better class of offers.

What are the rules governing the timeline a Contracting Office has to respond to questions submitted by Offerors pertaining to an RFP prior to the proposal submission due date? Is there a specific FAR clause that specifies a duration?

Scenario:

Proposal due date: 10 December 2013

Questions were due: 18 November 2013

I presume you are asking from the offeror's perspective, thinking "It's been 2 1/2 weeks since questions were due, no answers have been provided and proposals are due in 3 business days - what's going on?"

If that's your situation, I would guess that the goverment received more questions than expected, or received a very complex or difficult question. Either of these situations, coupled with the timing of being around Thanksgiving, may have led to a longer time to get answers out. I would expect answers to be provided by tomorrow, before the weekend, and the proposal due date will likely be extended, possibly until the first week of January.

Have you asked the contracting office POC what's going on?