1. Home
  2. |Insights
  3. |Potential OCI Short-Circuits Sole-Source Award

Potential OCI Short-Circuits Sole-Source Award

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 01.17.08

In Superlative Technologies, Inc. (Jan. 4, 2008, http://www.gao.gov/decisions/bidpro/310489.pdf), GAO held improper the cancellation of a solicitation by DOJ due to potential Procurement Integrity Act (PIA) and organizational conflict of interest unfair competitive advantage problems when DOJ turned around and awarded a sole-source contract for the same work to a contractor using as a subcontractor the company with the PIA/OCI problem. GAO recommended that DOJ reopen the competition and follow the procurement integrity and OCI regulations to determine the scope of the problem and whether any offerors should be disqualified or other corrective actions should be required.

Insights

Client Alert | 3 min read | 07.23.26

Protester Beware: Recent GAO Decision Suggests Traditional “Reasonable Possibility” Prejudice Standard May Be Evolving

It is well established that “[c]ompetitive prejudice is an essential element of every viable protest.” Yet, for decades, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has tempered this requirement with two critical corollaries: protesters need only demonstrate a “reasonable possibility” that they were prejudiced by an agency’s actions, and GAO “will resolve doubts regarding prejudice in favor of the protester.” These principles have been consistent features of GAO’s bid protest jurisprudence for more than 30 years. See, e.g., United Int’l Eng'g, Inc., B-245448, Jan. 29, 1992, 71 CPD ¶ 177....