Bid protests, suspension and debarments continue to drop, but for how long?

Bid protests, suspension and debarments continue to drop, but for how long?

The number of protests filed by contractors in fiscal 2019 is significantly down.


The number of vendors suspended or debarred by agencies in fiscal 2018 also dropped considerably.


But what agencies and industry need to really pay attention to is the fine print in the new reports issued last week by the Government Accountability Office and the Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee, respectively.


Let’s start with the suspension and debarment committee’s report. While the number of suspensions, proposed debarments and debarments dropped for a fourth straight year in fiscal 2018 — the latest data that the committee released in late October — that trend may be over by 2020.

Source: Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee 2019 report to Congress.

The committee created a cybersecurity subcommittee to track and report contractor compliance issues and developments.

“This should be a signal to the contractor community. Cybersecurity compliance activities are not only for national security reasons, but for the sake of your company and you need to be attentive to these requirements because noncompliance has significant ramifications,” said Fred Levy, a partner with the law firm Covington and the co-chairman of the firm’s Government Contracts Practice Group. “Anecdotally, we are handling more cyber compliance related cases. We have had debarment matters related to cyber matters and cyber as supply chain issues already. It will become an ever-increasing matter of focus as it becomes a greater item for focus for agencies.”


Levy and other procurement lawyers pointed to the “qui tam” case brought against Cisco that came to light earlier this year around cybersecurity flaws in ..

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