As a result of their failure to abide by earlier bid protest decisions, three federal acquisition officials have been barred by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims from participating in any further actions regarding a “tainted” solicitation.
In Starry Associates, Inc. v. United States, No. 16-44C (Fed. Cl. July 27, 2016), the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) sharply criticized a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decision to cancel a solicitation following two bid protests at the Government Accountability Office “GAO). The history and outcome of the case are exceptional among bid protests — an area of the law characterized by deference to agency decisions and arbitrary-and-capricious review.
HHS’s Program Support Center (PSC) issued a lowest-price, technically acceptable solicitation to procure business-operations services in support of HHS’s financial management system. Protestor Starry Associates, Inc. was the incumbent, but Intellizant, LLC won the award as the lowest-price offeror. Starry ended up filing three protests at GAO and the instant protest at the COFC, alleging that the procurement process was “tainted” in favor of Intellizant.
Protests accusing the agency of bias rarely prevail, but the COFC’s decision laid out in detail “a series of actions which,” by the court’s description, “reflect a lack of fidelity to the procurement process.” And while the court declined to formally determine whether the procurement was tainted by bias, it functionally ended up in the same place.
Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2016/08/hhs-seeing-stars-after-recent-loss-in-cofc-bid-protest/
