GAO’s Bid Protest Sustain Rate Soars, but Is There a Catch?
Client Alert | 24 min read | 11.06.23
On October 26, 2023, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its Annual Report on Bid Protests for Fiscal Year 2023.
The total number of protests filed and the number of protests sustained by GAO increased significantly compared to Fiscal Year 2022—and GAO’s “Sustain Rate” jumped to 31%. GAO downplayed these increases to a degree, highlighting that it received “an unusually high number of protests challenging a single procurement”—the Department of Health and Human Services’ award of Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 4 (CIO-SP4) government-wide acquisition contracts—which resulted in over 100 sustained protests. Nonetheless, even excluding the CIO-SP4 protests, it appears that GAO’s “Effectiveness Rate” (the percentage of cases in which the protester received relief, such as voluntary corrective action or a GAO sustain) was comparable to prior years—at or near 50%. Thus, bid protests remain an important oversight mechanism for the federal procurement system.
The most prevalent grounds upon which GAO sustained protests in FY 2023 were (1) unreasonable technical evaluations; (2) flawed selection decisions; and (3) unreasonable cost or price evaluations. The most prevalent grounds for sustained protests over the past ten years are detailed in the table below:
GAO’s full statistics for FY 2023 are shown below:
Contacts
Insights
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.03.25
ICE Is Suddenly At The Door: How Retailers, Hospitals, And Hotels Can Survive The Surprise Visitor
Imagine a typical morning at your retail store, hospital, or hotel—customers are arriving, staff are busy, and suddenly, federal agents from ICE appear at your front desk. The surprise is real, but panic does not have to be. Unannounced inspections conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) inspectors have been occurring for years, but in recent months, ICE has ramped up inspection visits across the service sector, targeting I-9 compliance and employment records. These visits are not always dramatic raids; more often, they are routine checks that can escalate if your team is not prepared.
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.03.25
Client Alert | 13 min read | 10.30.25
Federal and State Regulators Target AI Chatbots and Intimate Imagery
Client Alert | 3 min read | 10.30.25
Is Course Hero Heading to Summer School After Summary Judgment Loss?
