For the second time in recent weeks, the Court of Federal Claims issued a ruling that broke from U.S. Government Accountability Office precedent. In IAP Worldwide Services Inc. v. U.S., Judge Matthew H. Solomson faulted the U.S. Army for failing to conduct discussions in a billion-dollar procurement despite the default rule in favor of discussions created by U.S. Department of Defense regulations.

Judge Solomson held that Section 215.306 of the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement creates a regulatory presumption in favor of conducting discussions in acquisitions over $100 million by which U.S. Army evaluators failed to abide in assuming an unsuccessful offeror could not remedy deficiencies in its proposal.

Originally published in Law360 - April 15, 2022.