Tuesday, March 29, Forbes.com published a fascinating article written by Dr. Gleb Tsipursky entitled, Prevent Costly Procurement Disasters: 6 Science-Backed Techniques For Bias-Free Decision Making. In the article, I weigh in on the subject of bias in the bid selection process for federal procurements. I discuss some of the ways the ever-developing science behind implicit bias could potentially be utilized in bid protests challenging source selection decisions as biased–which is currently one of the toughest protest challenges to win.
As you can read more about in the article, government officials are presumed to act in good faith and the standards for proving otherwise are difficult to meet (essentially, you need a “smoking gun” to win a protest on bias alone). This article thoroughly discusses the current protest landscape for challenging bias, the ways procurement officials can work to mitigate or eliminate bias in the procurement process, and the potential interplay of the science behind bias in both the procurement and protest processes.