Protest spotlight

(This regular feature highlights protests decided by the Government Accountability Office.)

Agency: Air Force

Protester: S&K Aerospace

What GAO found: S&K Aerospace protested the terms of an Air Force solicitation for the Parts and Repair Ordering System, dubbed PROS, arguing the service "improperly disclosed its proprietary pricing data under the incument PROS contract," according to the GAO report.

After the solicitation was released, a potential offeror notified the Air Force it had "unlocked a password-protected pricing matrix that was included as part of the RFP, which revealed 'information that might include Government cost or price data.'"  After it investigated, the Air Force found that the information in the matrix was S&K's cancellation fees for the base period of the incumbent contract, GAO writes.

To solve the problem, the Air Force amended the solicitation's cancellation fee and required offerors to sign a statement saying they had not accessed other S&K proprietary data.

However, S&K argued the disclosure caused it competitive harm and that the remedial actions were insufficient. GAO disagreed and denied the protest.

The decision: http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/673802.pdf