Offerors frequently are required to identify in their proposals specific references that the government might check during evaluations of their proposals. Interestingly, however, agencies generally are not required to check with the references identified by the offerors. In addition, an agency may decide to check some of the references but not all. Also, the contracting officer had no reason to believe that checking the other references would have changed the result. Although that reference informed the agency that she did not recall the contract in question, GAO found that the agency had no obligation to investigate further or to check with the other references.
Agencies also have considerable discretion in how they conduct reference checks.
Even when an agency receives reference checks that are less than satisfactory, the agency is not obligated to seek additional information. Therefore, GAO sustained the protest because the agency did not credit the protester's exemplary performance on a prior contract with the same agency simply because an individual failed to complete and return the past-performance evaluation materials. In general, a contracting officer may rely on personal knowledge in place of a reference check where reasonable. Until the recent revision to the rules on conducting negotiated procurements, the Federal Acquisition Regulation required contracting officers to include in discussions with the offerors an opportunity to comment on any negative references on which the offeror had not previously had an opportunity to comment. GAO has taken this requirement very seriously.