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CRS – GAO Bid Protests: Trends and Analysis

Follow up to previous posting, Amazon’s lawsuit released against GAO in cloud computing contract case, see this new CRS report, GAO Bid Protests: Trends and Analysis, August 9, 2013: “Bid protests on federal government contracts filed with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have recently received increased congressional scrutiny due to protests of high-profile awards and reports that the number of protests is increasing. The delay of contract award or performance triggered by a GAO protest, coupled with the increasing number of GAO protests, has also prompted concerns about the potential impact of protests upon government agency operations, especially in the Department of Defense. There has been a significant shift in bid protest trends over the last five years. From FY2001 to FY2008, total government procurement spending, adjusted for inflation, increased at a faster rate (over 100%) than the number of protests filed (35%). This trend reversed itself in FY2008: from FY2008-FY2012 total government spending, adjusted for inflation, decreased more than 10% while total protests increased 45%. This data indicates that, when compared to the rate of government spending, bid protests decreased from FY2001-FY2008, and increased from FY2008-FY2012.”

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