What is a bid protest?
A. A bid protest is a legal challenge to the acceptance or rejection of a bid or proposal to a government procurement opportunity, or a challenge to the award of government contract. If a contractor who bids on an open government contract believes that it lost unlawfully, or if the award of a government contract was procedurally or substantively defective, a contractor may protest its elimination from the competitive process, or ask to have the contract award set aside and competition reopened. If a potential protest issues cannot be resolved at the agency level, a protest may be filed with the General Accounting Office (“GAO”). Q. Who may file a bid protest? A. A party has standing to file a protest with the GAO if it is an “interested party,” meaning an actual or prospective bidder on a government contract with a direct economic interest in the outcome of the bidding process. Generally speaking, in order to be an interested party, a protester must have potentially been in line to be
