Bid Protests

GAO recently published two bid protest decisions that address the issue of when contractors may rely on the past performance or experience of a contractor’s teaming partners, and how agencies can restrict that reliance. These two decisions demonstrate the importance of thoroughly reviewing solicitations to see how an agency plans to evaluate past performance...

In DAI Global LLC v. Administrator of the US Agency for International Development, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a prior CBCA decision dismissing DAI’s appeals for lack of jurisdiction due to an allegedly defective CDA claim certification. In so doing, the Court upended a line of decisions holding that Boards...

On September 26, 2019, the Department of Defense (DOD) issued a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to significantly restrict DOD's use of Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) source selection procedures. The new rule, which went into effect on October 1, 2019, should not come as a surprise to federal government...

A glance at some relevant data may provide some initial orientation to the landscape. The congressionally mandated FY18 RAND Corporation study on bid protests of DoD procurements found that less than 0.3 % of contracts are actually protested. Of the protests that were filed, more than half of all bid protests were made by...