Tag Archives: Source Selection Decision Document

GAO Checks the Math: An Agency’s Failure to Document OCI and Best-Value Decision Results in Sustained Protest

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In the procurement process, agencies are afforded a significant amount of discretion when selecting an awardee. When an agency’s decision is protested, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) focuses primarily on the reasonableness of the agency’s conclusions. But when an agency fails to show its rationale behind a decision, GAO is unable to conclude that the agency’s decision was reasonable.

In a recent GAO decision, Castro & Company, B-423689 (Comp. Gen. Nov. 13, 2025), GAO sustained a protest on three grounds, all of which involved an agency’s lack of documentation.  

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Agency Creates Fake Source Selection Documents

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An agency has been caught creating fake source selection documents to pad its file in response to several GAO bid protests.

A recent GAO bid protest decision shows that, after award, the agency created new source selection documents and revised others, then pretended those documents had been part of the contemporaneous source selection file.  And although the agency’s conduct resulted in the cancellation of a major procurement, it’s not clear whether the agency employees who created the fake documents will face any punishment.

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Agency’s “Cut-And-Paste” Proposal Evaluation Upheld

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An agency’s evaluation of proposals was not improper even though the Source Selection Authority “cut and paste” portions of a selection document used in a similar procurement–including typographical errors and a reference to a firm that had not submitted a proposal.

The GAO’s recent decision highlights an uncomfortable truth of government contracting: while the government can (and often does) demand nearly perfect proposals, the government may be able to get by with sloppy or lazy evaluations.

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