GAO Slams Protestor For Protective Order Violation

For the first time ever, the GAO in PWC Logistics Servs. Co. (Jan. 11, 2008, http://www.gao.gov/decisions/bidpro/310559.pdf) has dismissed a protest without reaching the merits because of violations of a protective order by the protestor. The GAO gave notice several years ago that dismissal was an option for an "abuse of the GAO process," and it found this case to warrant dismissal because, after an inadvertent disclosure by outside counsel of pleadings with significant amounts of proprietary information of the awardee, at least some of the information was circulated within the higher echelons of the company instead of being returned immediately.