In mid-December, GAO issued its Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2016.  The report reveals, among other things, that GAO’s protest sustain rate for this past fiscal year (“FY”) was 22.56%, almost double that of FY 2015.  While this is perhaps the most notable data point, the report once again provides a wealth of interesting information for the contractor community.

The Competition in Contracting Act requires that GAO report to Congress certain data concerning GAO’s handling of bid protests, including the number of protest filings and a summary of the most relevant grounds for sustaining protests.[1]  Unpacking this data provides helpful insight to contractors considering whether or not to challenge a procurement award via a bid protest at GAO.  The report includes a chart comparing the statistics over the last five fiscal years; below we summarize some of the highlights for FY 2016:
Continue Reading Double Your Pleasure: GAO’s Annual Protest Report Shows that Sustain Rate Has Almost Doubled, But the Effectiveness Rate Remained Flat