Post-Award Protest Primer Series: Part 1

Part 1:  An Introduction to Bid Protests

Welcome to the first in a new series of articles on post-award bid protests!  A lot of misunderstandings and misinformation surround the bid protest, and traps abound for the wary and unwary alike.  To dispel some of this confusion and explore some of the substantive and procedural issues peculiar to protests, we are launching this series of posts to walk you through a post-award bid protest.  This series will discuss common procedural pitfalls, examine many of the most common procurement errors we encounter, and offer practical suggestions that may prove helpful whether or not you ever file a protest.

A bid protest is a challenge to an alleged impropriety in a solicitation or other procurement error that prejudices the protester.  Bid protests have been around for a long time—at least since the 1930s, when the Comptroller General began issuing decisions on public procurement disputes.  Bid protests provide aggrieved