Bid protest prediction doesn't pan out

Despite what experts warned several years ago, there has been no significant increase in the number of bid protests after lawmakers gave the Government Accountability Office the authority to review task and delivery orders.

The numbers do not bear out that prediction. GAO received only 147 protests regarding task and delivery orders in 2011.

“This is hardly a significant number given the multitude of very large multiple award [indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity] contracts and enormous task orders awarded thereunder,” Anne Perry, partner and co-chair of the Government Contracts and Regulated Industries Group at the Sheppard Mullin law firm, wrote in the firm's blog.

The fiscal 2008 National Defense Authorization Act gave GAO the power to take up companies’ protests of task and delivery orders that are more than $10 million. Federal officials were concerned about an increase in protests that the new authority could inspire. Karen Kopf, director of operations at the General Services Administration’s Federal Systems Integration and Management Center, said she feared an outbreak of protests under GAO’s new authority. Other experts said there was no other way to go but up.

The overall number of protests has steadily increased over the past five years, but apparently not due to vast numbers of protests over task and delivery orders. Meanwhile, the success rate for protesters in fiscal 2011 was at its lowest.

Perry wrote that it reflects a bit of a tougher year for protesters, although no real significant changes from last year. There were 2,353 protests filed in 2011, including 144 cost claims and requests for reconsideration, but GAO sustained only 67 protests, a mere 16 percent.

Overall, no huge surprises emerge from GAO’s statistics, although the trends are headed in the wrong direction for protesters, Perry wrote.

“Then again, maybe the agencies are getting better at buying,” she wrote.

Posted by Matthew Weigelt on Dec 13, 2011 at 11:58 AM