Q. Does publishing the funding source, grant numbers, and percentage of total costs represented by Federal funds, in our solicitation for bids advertisements for federally-funded construction contracts, fulfill the requirement for Contract Award Announcement, or do we need to publish information again once the contract has been awarded? If required to publish the information again, do we include or exclude the name of the contractor to whom contract was awarded?
A. The FTA requirement regarding contract award announcements is stated in FTA Circular 4220.1E, paragraph 14 - Contract Award Announcement. As you will see from the Circular, FTA does not require its grantees to make contract award announcements; however, if the grantee does announce its contract awards, FTA then requires that the announcement of contract awards above $500,000 in value specify the amount of Federal funds that are included to finance the acquisition. FTA also does not require the announcement to give the name of the contractor but this would be a rather standard procedure if you decide to announce the award. Organizations that do announce their awards usually do so with the names and addresses of the contractors, the IFB number, the project description and the amount of the award. This is done in part to give potential subcontractors an opportunity to contact the winning contractors for subcontracting opportunities, and it also may be an important event for determining the point at which losing bidders may protest the award. For example, if your protest procedures require that protests be filed within a certain number of days of the announcement of the winning contractor, then there should be a public announcement to this effect unless you intend to notify the losing offerors directly.
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* FTA Circular 4220.1E is available on the Internet.
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