GAO rejects Education Department picks for $417.1M contract

The Government Accountability Office has ruled in favor of 17 companies whose bids were rejected by the Education Department for a $417.1 million contract for debt collection services.

Few details on the decision are available as it is still being reviewed by the companies involved so they can purge any proprietary information.

GAO released a statement saying that the Education Department made several “prejudicial errors in evaluating proposals.” They are recommending that Education at the very least re-evaluate bids and make a new source selection decision.

The agency awarded the contract to seven companies in December and was quickly hit with protests.

While I’m sure there are IT and technology services involved in the debt collection services contract, it does fall a little outside of what we usually cover.

But the fact that GAO ruled against the government makes it noteworthy. A sustained bid protest is rare. Out of 2,734 closed cases in fiscal 2016, only 139 were sustained.

Once the decision is released it’ll be worth reading to see if there are any broader principles involved.