Bid protests are commonly used by disappointed offerors to challenge the award of contracts or the terms of procurement solicitations. Bid protests are filed at the procuring agency, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (Court of Federal Claims) or, most frequently, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
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Cordatis represents companies in all aspects of the bid protest process, and has filed or defended hundreds of cases at the GAO, the Court of Federal Claims, and, prior to revocation of its protest jurisdiction, the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals.
Missing a deadline may cause a company to lose legal rights. Also, when a protest is filed at the Government Accountability Office within certain prescribed deadlines, the protester can stop an award or contract performance unless a senior agency official overrides the required suspension. This can be an important step for the protester to obtain a meaningful remedy if the protest is successful.
Missing a deadline may cause a company to lose legal rights. Also, when a protest is filed at the Government Accountability Office within certain prescribed deadlines, the protester can stop an award or contract performance unless a senior agency official overrides the required suspension. This can be an important step for the protester to obtain a meaningful remedy if the protest is successful.
Cordatis helps clients distinguish between protests that have a realistic chance of winning and those that are likely to fail. Some companies believe that they should never protest because they will be “blackballed” by the agency and will not get any business from the procuring agency in the future if they protest. In the vast majority of cases, this belief is untrue. The examples that we’ve listed show that protesters can not only win cases, but win the contract as well. Over a thousand companies file protests every year. Bid protesters have included some of the biggest names in government contracting, such as Lockheed Martin, AT&T and IBM.
A company that wins a contract that is subsequently protested by a disappointed offeror is permitted to intervene and defend its award at the GAO. Similar intervention rights typically apply at the Court of Federal Claims. Intervention is almost always advisable if the protested contract is important to your company. Some companies decide not to intervene because they believe that a protest will likely be unsuccessful. However, agencies can and do lose protests in a significant number of instances.
Any company that is the awardee of a protested contract that is important to its business will want to seriously consider intervening to assist the agency in defending against the protest.
Here are some representative examples of Cordatis’s bid protest experience:
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