Your Right To Protest and Dispute

What if the contracting officer or buying agency makes a decision that you (the contractor) don't agree with or that you believe is incorrect? Government contracting regulations provide contractors with several remedies, all the way from filing a simple protest or dispute to taking the government to court.

To begin our discussion, we need to distinguish terminology. Under government contract law, you have the right to "protest" and also the right to "dispute." While these terms seem very similar and are often used interchangeably in everyday language, government contracting regulations treat them differently.

Generally speaking, these rules give you the right to "protest" a defective bid or the award of a contract to another bidder. They also give you the right to "dispute" an issue or disagreement with the contracting officer that arises after you have won and been awarded a contract.

In addition, you may have other options as well.

There are three federal bid protest levels. In descending order of cost and how deep you're going to get:

1. Judicial action brought at the United States Court of Federal Claims (COFC).
2. Protest filed with the (GAO) Government Accountability Office.
3. Agency-Level protest filed with the agency conducting the procurement.

Ok, it's not too soon to say it . . . timeliness is all-important. A protest must be filed no later than 10 days after the basis for the protest is known or should have been known. If you do not get it in by that time, you will not succeed, no matter what the reason. If you want to go on with a protest, you will have to go higher level of Protest (usually with the US Court of Federal Claims.)

• Protesting a Bid or Award
• Disputing Contract Issues
• Conflict Resolution: Other Options