Bid protest reforms: spoiled wine in a new bottle

“An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.”
-- H.L Menckken

I was at an ABA subcommittee meeting the other day and heard a report about the plans of the Section 809 Panel. This is the group that has been tasked with proposing changes for the manner in which the government procures goods, services and construction work.

I have been around this block a few times and have certain amount of cynicism for what passes as procurement reforms. Mostly, I worry that the proposals represent the interests of entrenched bureaucratic interest groups. I am especially wary of bid protest reforms. Often, the proponents of bid protest reforms are government players who don’t like losing bid protests. 

Who can forget the procurement agencies' reaction to the short-lived authority of the General Services Board of Contract Appeals ("GSBCA") over ADPE protests. How terrible -- protesters actually won protests and even got significant attorney fees awards! I digress into war stories, but I fondly remember a case at the GSBCA where I prevailed against the Federal Computer Center, or some faceless entity of that ilk, whose claim to fame was they had never lost a bid protest. In my case, after the protest was granted, there was a delightful cartoon in Federal Computer Reseller News with the government procurement folks portrayed as little Dutch boys with their fingers in a leaky dike. Well, they "reformed" the GSBCA out of the bid protest business and showed them what happens if you really sustain bid protests. 

My fear is that the same forces are at work again. They want to limit bid protests, discourage protesters, and otherwise get the private government contractor bar off the back of the government. We been there before and we know where that will lead. Of course, these things move in cycles, but by my measure, regressive and even corrupt movements are not reforms. You can give it the reform label, and put that lip stick on the pig, but it is still a pig.