Bid protests keep rising

Bid protests filed in fiscal year 2011 continued their steady five-year climb, . GAO handled 2,353 cases in fiscal 2011, compared with 2,299 in 2010 and 1,411 in 2007. The number of protests that were sustained, however, dropped to 67 compared with 82 in 2010. The number of sustained protests was the lowest in 2009, when only 57 of 1,989 cases were sustained. In 2007, 91 cases were sustained out of 1,411 that were filed. In its annual report to Congress, GAO said only 147 cases filed in 2011 were from GAO’s expanded bid protest jurisdiction over task orders. 2011 had the lowest sustainment rate at 16 percent for the five years covered in the GAO report. 2007 has the highest with 27 percent.