ABSTRACT
The research project intended to determine the reasons that the GAO sustained protests filed by government contractors to challenge source selection decisions, referenced in the previous chapter, will be more thoroughly discussed here. Recommendations for improving the federal government’s source selection processes will also be offered. All the GAO decisions posted to its website at www.gao.gov during the two-year period from August 1, 2010 through July 31, 2012 were reviewed to identify those protests that were sustained. The act of one government agency to sustain protest from a private sector firm because of an errant source selection decision by another government agency is an unequivocal indicator that government has serious issues with respect to selecting the best contractor for the job. Research conducted in preparation for writing this book included the GAO’s decisions regarding sustained contractor protests and GAO recommendations to reimburse contractors for costs associated with filing and pursuing protests. Recommendations to reimburse contractors were selected only if the rationale for sustaining the original protests were described in the GAO decision.
