Bid Protests

A rise in bid protest cases in recent years has raised concerns from the Department of Defense (DoD), industry, and Congress for their impact on the acquisition process and delivery of products and services to the warfighter. Bid protest filings with the General Accountability Office (GAO) rose 12% from Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 to FY2011 according its FY2015 annual report.  At the same time, sustain and effectiveness rates only changed marginally over that same time frame.

 

While bid protests are an important component of a health procurement system and guard against fraud and abuse, some observers contend that there are perverse incentives for incumbent service contractors to protest follow-on awards, and that use of bid protests factor into a company’s valuation.  Lacking clear data on root causes for bid protests and their impacts, NDIA has advocated for further in-depth study on bid protests and causal factors. This will ensure that any changes to the bid protest system fix problems with the system itself rather than symptoms of other problems.