Source & Authority Information
- •15.206 Amending the solicitation. | Acquisition.GOV(accessed August 26, 2026)
- •52.215-1_Alternate II | Acquisition.GOV(accessed August 26, 2026)
AI-assisted and automatically checked against the linked primary sources.
How should solicitation amendments be handled?
According to FAR 15.206, the contracting officer shall amend the solicitation whenever the Government changes its requirements or terms and conditions. If the change happens before the proposal deadline, the amendment must be issued to all parties receiving the solicitation. If it happens after the deadline, the amendment must be issued to all offerors that have not been eliminated from the competition. FAR 15.206 also says that if a proposal of interest departs from the stated requirements, the contracting officer shall amend the solicitation without revealing protected alternate solutions or other protected information. When time is of the essence, oral notice may be used, but the contract file must be documented and the notice formalized with an amendment. FAR 52.215-1 adds that unchanged terms remain unchanged and that offerors must acknowledge receipt of any amendment by the date and time specified in the amendment.
Process
- 1Determine whether the Government changed the solicitation
If requirements or terms and conditions changed, FAR 15.206 requires an amendment.
- 2Issue the amendment to the correct group
Before closing, send it to all parties receiving the solicitation; after closing, send it to offerors not eliminated.
- 3Document and formalize the change
If oral notice is used because time is of the essence, document the file and formalize the notice with an amendment.
- 4Assess whether the change is too substantial for the existing competition
If the amendment is so substantial that other sources likely would have competed, cancel the solicitation and issue a new one.
A post-offer change can require canceling the original solicitation and issuing a new one if the amendment is so substantial that prospective offerors reasonably could not have anticipated it.