Paul Khoury Discusses Drop in Bid Protests As Pandemic Fuels Emergency Federal Contracts

May 11, 2020

Paul F. Khoury, co-chair of Wiley’s Government Contracts Practice, was quoted in a May 7 Law360 article on bid protest activity at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) amid a wave of urgent new procurements related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Citing a Wiley tracker for cases filed at the GAO, Law360 reported that the number of bid protests for April 2020 was the lowest for that month since 2016, and was down 25% from April 2019.

The impact of the new emergency contracts issued directly in response to COVID-19 has yet to be realized in the bid protest system, Law360 reported.

Mr. Khoury told Law360 that potential protesters might currently be inclined to forego a challenge that they would otherwise pursue during normal times, due to the unusual circumstances created by the pandemic.

“This is just my sense, but it really doesn’t make sense to slow down the government from buying what it needs to deal with this crisis,” said Mr. Khoury. “The last thing any company wants to be perceived as is somebody who’s preventing the government from quickly doing what it needs to do to help us through this crisis.”

The article can be found here (subscription required).

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