The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984, 31 U.S.C. § 3554(e)(2) (CICA), requires that the Comptroller General report to Congress each instance in which a federal agency did not fully implement a recommendation made by the Government Accountability Office in connection with a bid protest decided the prior fiscal year and each instance in which a final decision in a protest was not rendered within 100 days after the date the protest is submitted to the Comptroller General. GAO reports that there were no such occurrences during fiscal year 2020.
GAO also provided data concerning overall protest filings for the fiscal year. During the 2020 fiscal year, GAO received 2,149 cases: 2,052 protests, 56 cost claims, and 41 requests for reconsideration. GAO closed 2,137 cases during the fiscal year, 2,024 protests, 66 cost claims, and 47 requests for reconsideration. Of the 2,137 cases closed, 417 were attributable to GAO’s bid protest jurisdiction over task orders.
Of the protests resolved on the merits during fiscal year 2020, GAO sustained 15 percent of those protests. The GAO review shows that the most prevalent reasons for sustaining protests during the 2020 fiscal year were: (1) unreasonable technical evaluation; (2) flawed solicitation; (3) unreasonable cost or price evaluation; and (4) unreasonable past performance evaluation.
