The Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) issues statistics each year regarding the outcome of bid protests. In 2015, there were 2,639 cases filed and there we 587 decisions on the merits. Of those, only 68 protests were sustained. According to the way the GAO presents its statistics, that would indicate that protestors prevailed approximately 12% of the time. In reality, since many protests were withdrawn or summarily dismissed, the protesters only prevailed in 68 of the 2,639 protests filed and the true success rate was closer to 3%. With those odds, why would anyone file a GAO bid protest? The answer requires a little closer scrutiny since statistics can be misleading.
GAO bid protest
Should a Federal Construction Contractor File a Bid Protest?
By Michael H. Payne on
Posted in Bid Protests
By: Michael H. Payne
To protest or not to protest, that is the question. That may sound a little like William Shakespeare, but it actually is a question frequently posed by federal contractors. Particularly in the world of “best value” contracting, where subjective evaluation factors are applied to make source selections, contractors often feel that…