you went through the source selection process and recommended a vendor for the contract award. In this project, we will explore legal and ethical considerations in contracting as your team finalizes the contract award and performs post-award activities for the Watson James contract. As you work through these steps, you will address any legal challenges that arise, including protests. As a contracting manager, you are responsible for ensuring high ethical standards and handling any ethical issues responsibly and promptly. By the end of the project, you will complete a compilation of post-award activities including the following: internal documentation for the protest response that oidentifies the issue, orecommends action, and oconsiders all stakeholders relevant to the acquisition an addendum to the awarded contract, recommending potential changes a memo outlining details of the awarded vendor contract kickoff Things have been going well as leadership at CTI has received your team's recommendation and chosen to award the contract to Nursing Associates, LLC. As you're catching up on your email after a meeting, you're surprised to see a message marked urgent from Savar Singh, CTI's legal administrator. 

• 
  
• From: Savar Singh, Legal Admin, Calum Tech International To: You Subject: Bid Protest (Urgent)
• Good morning,
• As the Watson James contract moves forward toward its fulfillment by Nursing Associates, LLC, I know that you will be responsible for completing a range of post-award activities. I wanted to make you aware of a bid protest we received last night.
• Nurturing and Care, LLC, another vendor that submitted a proposal for the Watson James contract, has registered a protest. Nurturing and Care argues that they did not have the opportunity to include multiple personnel in some labor categories in their proposal, based on the posted RFP. The protest mentions that Nurturing and Care has worked side by side with the winning vendor, Nursing Associates, on a number of projects because of their similar qualifications and offerings.
• I will be sending additional details regarding this matter for your review. Please investigate how the vendor selection process was handled and give me a summary of whether there are any ethical concerns there and if there are, how they may have affected our award decision. Keep in mind that by submitting this protest, Nurturing and Care has begun a written record; any communication you engage in will be documented along with that. You'll need to be direct and honest in your responses, while remaining fair and respectful of everyone involved.
• I'll be checking in with you frequently as we make sure all legal and ethical concerns with this acquisition are taken care of.
• 
  

THIS IS THE PROTEST RECEIVED Nurturing and Care Bid Protest Ms. Karen A. Smith Director, Nurturing and Care, LLC 301 West High Street Truman City, MD 65101 Re: Protest Regarding Watson JamesRFP (request for proposal) Dear CalumTechInternational Contract Manager: Please consider this a formal protest letterfromNurturing and Care, a nursing services company thatsubmitted a proposalin response to Watson James Medical Center's RFP regarding nursing services for the Help You Now program. Nurturing and Care is proud ofourfar-stretchingreputation in the health-care industry, and we haveparticipated in numerous solicitation opportunities at all levels of government.We have worked alongsidethewinning vendor, Nursing Associates,for many years withoutcontentionand have demonstrated that we are just as qualified for this type of work as they are.However, we were not given the opportunity to proposefor as wide and diverse a labor mix as we would prefer, and we believe that this held us back.We feel compelled to raise concerns to CTI in the form of this protestregardingthe contract award made to Nursing Associates for the Watson Jamescontract.A response is expected. Name and Address of Protester: Nurturing and Care, LLC 301 West High Street Truman City, MD 65101 Solicitation RFP: Watson JamesMedical Center Grounds for the Protest: Nurturing and Care was not aware we could includemultipletechnicians, project control, and service personnel in theRFPcosts.Also, weareas qualified as the winning vendor, but we do not know howtheir pricing and costscompare to ours. Sincerely, Karen A. Smith Director, Nurturing and Care, LLC ksmith@nurturingandcare.net Use the template provided to do the following:

• Identify the issue.
  • What is the vendor objecting to?
  • What caused the situation described by the protest?
• Recommend action.
  • What do you recommend we do in response to the protest?
• Consider all stakeholders relevant to the acquisition (e.g., CTI, Watson James, the vendors).
  • What ethical and legal implications should we keep in mind?
  • What affect could this protest and your suggested method of handling it have on any stakeholders?