No Conflict: GAO Holds Contractor’s Former Employee May Evaluate Proposals

Is it a conflict of interest for a contractor’s former employee to evaluate his old firm’s competitive proposal?  Not necessarily, according to the GAO.

In a recent GAO bid protest decision, the agency’s technical evaluation board included a member who had previously worked for the winning offeror.  As one might expect, this did not sit particularly well with one of the awardee’s competitors, which filed a GAO bid protest.  The GAO’s ruling: there was no conflict of interest.

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