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Evaluation Backup Gets Hard Look

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 09.20.05

Rebuffing the agency's attempt to insulate the evaluations of the first-line evaluators from scrutiny, the Court of Federal Claims in Beta Analytics Int'l, Inc. v. U.S. (Sept. 6, 2005), reviewed the narratives and scoring and found that they didn't add up, to the protester's prejudice. The court held that it could not focus only on the top-level award decision documentation when the findings there were built on the lower-level scorings.

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Client Alert | 4 min read | 09.15.26

GAO Indicates Reasonable Conflict of Interest Investigation Must Include Inquiry of Involved Firm

The U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) recent decision in Viderity Inc.—Costs, B-424422.5, Sept. 1, 2026, offers useful insight into what constitutes a legally sufficient conflict of interest investigation. The decision arose in an unusual procedural posture: Viderity initially protested, alleging that an agency evaluator had a personal conflict of interest. After the agency took corrective action, Viderity filed a cost entitlement claim requesting that GAO direct the agency to reimburse Viderity’s protest costs. In evaluating that claim, GAO assessed whether Viderity’s underlying protest ground was “clearly meritorious.”...