Summary

In response to congressional consideration of the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, which would limit attorneys' fees paid to bid protesters and exclude small businesses from the limitation, this report discusses attorneys' fees paid to bid protesters by federal agencies. GAO focuses on bid protests sustained by GAO and the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals during fiscal years 1992 and 1993. GAO provides information on the number of sustained or granted bid protests, number of bid protests in which attorneys' fees were paid, ranges of attorneys' hourly rates, average attorney fee per hour, number of bid protests in which the protester was a small business, and the number of bid protests in which the contract awardee was a small business.

GAO found that: (1) 245 bid protests were sustained during FY 1992 and 1993; (2) protesters requested reimbursement of attorneys' fees in 155 cases for which information was available; (3) of the 155 reimbursement requests, 124 requests were granted, 15 requests were denied, and 16 requests were pending as of September 1994; (4) attorneys' fees averaged $169 per hour and ranged between $20 an hour for paralegals to $375 per hour for law partners; (5) 113 of the protesters requesting reimbursement for attorneys' fees were small businesses; (6) small businesses were awarded contracts in 96 cases; (7) the Small Business Administration did not have sufficient information to determine whether the protester was a small business in many of the cases; and (8) 12 contracts had not been awarded as of September 1994 because solicitations had been cancelled or contract awards were pending.