Bid Bond - Joint Venture

Please don't let the threat of a protest stop you from doing the right thing.

Have you read FAR Subpart 28.1 and the provision at FAR 52.228-1?

I did a quick internet search and found GAO Bid Protest Decision B-228193 (http://www.gao.gov/products/449268) -- it might be helpful to you.

No legal counsel available to review adequacy of bonds??  Tricky.  

Here is a GAO Decision. http://www.gao.gov/decisions/bidpro/401841.pdf

I recommend you review available GAO decisions, formulate your own opinion and rationale based on past GAO decisions, then reach out to someone in your legal office who has experience with suretyship law.  Adequacy of bid bonds is based on the actual form and content of the bond and comparison to past GAO decisions or court opinions.  

In addition to the case mentioned by ji20874, see if B-401841 and B-208332 apply to your situation.  If the principal is a joint venture (JV), only one party executed the bid bond, and the JV agreement requires both members to sign, the bond is defective and the bid must be rejected.

Also, the following cases deal with situations where the principal on a bond is different from the principal on a bid.  54 Comp. Gen. 271 (1974)), B-178566, and B-255098.  Generally, a principal different than the nominal bidder raises doubts as to the enforceability of the bond, rendering it deficient and the defect may not be waived as a minor informality.

joel hoffman said:

Here is a GAO Decision. http://www.gao.gov/decisions/bidpro/401841.pdf

Hi Joel.  I was typing my response and saw that you mentioned the same case after I hit submit.

Thanks to all and I love this site!  I've had this sitting in legal for a week now and still no response, so thought I would bounce it off you experts

JLchief55 said:

Thanks to all and I love this site!  I've had this sitting in legal for a week now and still no response, so thought I would bounce it off you experts

Possible indication that the lawyer is clueless. We had one once that would sit on everything. He PCSed to Germany.  They found his desk full of action items and divided up the work among all of the other attorneys in the office to work them off.

JL....Did you check out the "Legal" tab that has Protest decisions by FAR?   Those referenced in this thread and others about bid bonds by JVs can be found in the FAR 28 section