Paul Khoury Discusses Verizon’s Successful $1.6 Billion Bid Protest Against GSA

Paul F. Khoury, a partner in Wiley Rein’s Government Contracts Practice, was quoted in a December 17 Bloomberg News article about challenges to federal agencies’ contracting decisions. The story cited a successful bid protest that Mr. Khoury handled for Verizon Wireless.

Only 13 percent of bid protests filed with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) against the U.S. Defense Department succeed, according to the article, which was republished December 30 in The Washington Post. Contractors are three times as likely to win challenges to U.S. State Department contracts, Bloomberg reported.

Part of the Defense Department’s success may be that it is more likely than other agencies to settle cases it doesn’t think it can win, Mr. Khoury told Bloomberg.

Verizon, represented by Mr. Khoury, won its bid protest against the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) after the GSA refused a settlement offer. The GAO in September sustained Verizon’s protest over the $1.6 billion contract.

The GSA’s attitude was, “If I’m going to be wrong, I want GAO to say I’m wrong in a decision,” Mr. Khoury told Bloomberg. “That is less likely to happen” when dealing with the Defense Department, he said.

In siding with Verizon, the GAO agreed that the competition was flawed because the GSA’s rules for awarding the contract were inconsistent with common commercial practices, according to the article.