Year In Review: Bid Protests

With the calendar year coming to an end, it is an opportune time to look back at bid protest activity at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Court of Federal Claims to identify which arguments have borne the most fruit.  To assist in this regard, GAO recently released its Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2015.  According to GAO, during Fiscal Year (FY) 2015, GAO received 2,496 new bid protests and closed 2,522 pending bid protests.¹  FY 2015 Annual Report at 1.  GAO sustained 12 percent of bid protests resolved on the merits, which represents the lowest sustain rate in the past five fiscal years.²  Id. at 5.  However, FY 2015 had the highest bid protest "effectiveness rate"—defined as the percentage of protests in which the protester obtains some sort of relief, either from voluntary agency corrective action or a sustained bid protest—over that same period.³  Id.