Timeline

1/22/08          SR Alliance filed Protest – 96 pages
1/28/08          1^st Supplement filed.  39 pages
2/08/08          Documents produced by DOE as requested by original protest
2/19/08          2^nd Supplement filed. 72 pages
2/26/08          DOE’s  Report due in response to the protest and first supplement.
3/14/08          Comments by SRNS & SRA on DOE’s report on the 2^nd supplement due.
3/14/08          SRA comments raise new issues - docket is extended.
3/20/08          DOE Agency Report on the supplemental filing and its rebuttal comments are                         combined and filed
3/26/08          SRNS and SRA comments on DOE Agency Report on supplemental filing &                         comments due
4/01/08          The record is closed and GAO starts deliberations.

End of  March/first week of April  --    record closes – GAO starts deliberations

The GAO decision will be returned no later than May 1, 2008. 

DOE will review the GAO decision, and then make a determination on contract transition resumption, postponement or termination.

GAO may:

1. Confirm the agency’s decision. (Agree with the award).

• To continue the protest, the protester may file in court.

2. Determine a deficiency in the agency’s decision (disagree with the process)

• The deficiency may be significant or it may not be significant
• If significant, the GAO will make a recommendation to the agency on how to correct the deficiency.  The agency may then choose to implement the recommendation, choose a different corrective action, abandon the procurement, or ignore the GAO recommendation all together.  Correcting the process may or may not ultimately change the outcome of the award.

3. GAO reviews the procurement to determine if DOE followed the procurement process that it announced that it was going to follow, that the process that it selected was reasonable, and that the process did not allow an unfair advantage to a bidder.  The GAO will not substitute its judgment for the judgment of the agency. (For example, it will not tell the DOE that it made the wrong choice – that is entirely the agency’s discretion.).

For more information, see the GAO website at: http://www.gao.gov/legal/bidprotest.html