This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Federal Contracts Report™ delivers concise, authoritative reports covering the complete spectrum of issues affecting the federal acquisition of goods and services, to keep you abreast of policies...
By Sam Skolnik
Bid protests stemming from defense and nondefense acquisitions roughly doubled from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2016, according to a long-awaited Defense Department-commissioned RAND Corp. study obtained by Bloomberg Government.
Yet the overall proportion of Defense Department contracts that are protested, less than 0.3 percent, “implies that bid protests are exceedingly uncommon for DoD procurements,” concluded the RAND report, which was mandated by the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.
RAND based its conclusions on a quantitative analysis of data on protests filed with the Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, according to the report, which was delivered Dec. 21 to congressional leaders and Defense Secretary James Mattis.
Neither RAND nor the recipients have released it, though RAND is expected to post it on its website this month.
The Pentagon and the contracting industry see the protest system differently—so much so that there is “a lack of trust on each side,” the 122-page report found.
Defense Department personnel expressed a “general dissatisfaction” with the current system, the report found in interviews with bid protest experts inside the military services, elsewhere in the Pentagon and in other agencies, as well as with government contracts attorneys, trade group officials, and individual contractor executives.
The rules allow protesters to make “excessive numbers of ‘weak’ allegations, by permitting contractors too much time to protest, and by virtue of the amount of time it takes to resolve cases,” Pentagon purchasers said, according to the report.
At the same time, “the private sector views bid protests as a healthy component of a transparent acquisition process, because these protests hold the government accountable and provide information on how the contract award or source selection was made,” the report found.
Lawmakers considered a number of significant changes to the bid protest system in the 2017 NDAA, including attempts to limit the number of protests contractors could file. Too many protests are filed, including many with only slim chances of success, some said.
Congress settled on a provision requiring the Defense Department to enlist a nonprofit or federally funded research entity to conduct a study to determine the long-term viability of the protest system.
The provision mandated that the study examine 14 elements of the protest process. However, because of a lack of available data, Santa Monica-Calif.-based RAND—the Defense Department’s choice to conduct the study—wasn’t able to address four of the elements: the effects of protests on procurements; the time and cost for the government to handle protests; the frequency with which protesters are awarded the contracts in dispute; and agency-level protest trends.
The report also did not include the GAO’s most recent numbers, including a 7 percent drop in filed bid protests to 2,596 in fiscal 2017 from 2,789 in fiscal 2016.
The report made a half-dozen recommendations, including:
The report could serve as grist for the debate over the 2019 NDAA, Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel of the Professional Services Council, told Bloomberg Government.
Chvotkin said he’s pleased that the report highlighted several issues important to the PSC, including the need for enhanced debriefings to add transparency to the process. “Overall, I think this is a valuable report,” he said.
Paul Khoury, a partner with Wiley Rein and co-chair of the firm’s government contracts practice group, told Bloomberg Government in a written statement that the report appears to be “thorough and balanced.”
“The key take-aways make sense and are consistent with our experience,” he wrote.
Khoury cited the report’s emphasis on enhanced debriefings, and its observation that the stability of the bid protest effectiveness rate over time suggests that contractors “are not likely to protest without merit.”
The National Defense Industrial Association’s policy staff found “it appears that many of industry’s concerns with the bid protest system are supported, most notably that firms are not likely to protest without merit,” NDIA spokeswoman Evamarie Socha told Bloomberg Government in a written statement.
Mattis has emphasized reforming the way the Pentagon does business, Defense Department spokesman Patrick Evans told Bloomberg Government in a written statement. Therefore, “we appreciate any effort that could help move us closer to reforming the department and its business processes in order to gain full value from every taxpayer dollar spent on defense,” he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sam Skolnik in Washington at sskolnik@bgov.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Ennis at dennis@bgov.com
Copyright © 2018 The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
All Bloomberg BNA treatises are available on standing order, which ensures you will always receive the most current edition of the book or supplement of the title you have ordered from Bloomberg BNA’s book division. As soon as a new supplement or edition is published (usually annually) for a title you’ve previously purchased and requested to be placed on standing order, we’ll ship it to you to review for 30 days without any obligation. During this period, you can either (a) honor the invoice and receive a 5% discount (in addition to any other discounts you may qualify for) off the then-current price of the update, plus shipping and handling or (b) return the book(s), in which case, your invoice will be cancelled upon receipt of the book(s). Call us for a prepaid UPS label for your return. It’s as simple and easy as that. Most importantly, standing orders mean you will never have to worry about the timeliness of the information you’re relying on. And, you may discontinue standing orders at any time by contacting us at 1.800.960.1220 or by sending an email to books@bna.com.
Put me on standing order at a 5% discount off list price of all future updates, in addition to any other discounts I may quality for. (Returnable within 30 days.)
Notify me when updates are available (No standing order will be created).
This Bloomberg BNA report is available on standing order, which ensures you will all receive the latest edition. This report is updated annually and we will send you the latest edition once it has been published. By signing up for standing order you will never have to worry about the timeliness of the information you need. And, you may discontinue standing orders at any time by contacting us at 1.800.372.1033, option 5, or by sending us an email to research@bna.com.
Put me on standing order
Notify me when new releases are available (no standing order will be created)