Although it is usually good news for a protester when an agency takes corrective action, the corrective action sometimes fails to adequately address the protest grounds. When this occurs, a protester may wish to file a new protest challenging the agency’s corrective action. The question of when to file a corrective action challenge is often tricky, however — and a misstep can result in dismissal. GAO recently clarified that timing in Computer World Services Corporation.
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HHS Seeing Stars After Recent Loss in COFC Bid Protest
In Starry Associates, Inc. v. United States, No. 16-44C (Fed. Cl. July 27, 2016), the Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”) sharply criticized a Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) decision to cancel a solicitation following two bid protests at the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”). The history and outcome of the case are exceptional among bid protests — an area of the law characterized by deference to agency decisions and arbitrary-and-capricious review.
HHS’s Program Support Center (“PSC”) issued a lowest-price, technically acceptable solicitation to procure business-operations services in support of HHS’s financial management system. Protestor Starry Associates, Inc. was the incumbent, but Intellizant, LLC won the award as the lowest-price offeror. Starry ended up filing three protests at GAO and the instant protest at the COFC, alleging that the procurement process was “tainted” in favor of Intellizant. Protests accusing the agency of bias rarely prevail, but the COFC’s decision laid out in detail “a series of actions which,” by the court’s description, “reflect a lack of fidelity to the procurement process.” And while the court declined to formally determine whether the procurement was tainted by bias, it functionally ended up in the same place.Continue Reading HHS Seeing Stars After Recent Loss in COFC Bid Protest