Pre-Award Protest

A pre-award protest is a challenge filed before contract award, typically objecting to solicitation terms, evaluation criteria, or other agency actions that occur during the procurement process before source selection. Pre-award protests must generally be filed before the solicitation closing date if challenging apparent solicitation improprieties, or within 10 days of when the protester knew or should have known of the adverse agency action. Common pre-award protest grounds include unduly restrictive requirements, ambiguous evaluation criteria, alleged organizational conflicts of interest, and failure to properly set aside for small business. Pre-award protests can pause the procurement pending resolution. Offerors excluded from the competitive range may file pre-award protests challenging their elimination.