The General Accounting Office has ruled that federal
employees who lose their jobs through competitions do not
have individual appeal rights under the revised Office of
Management and Budget Circular A-76.
It reached its decision in response to a protest filed by
the National Federation of Federal Employees over the
Department of Agriculture’s decision to outsource fleet
maintenance services in the Pacific Southwest through
contractor SERCO Management Services, Inc.
USDA argued that NFFE lacked standing to protest the award
because it is not an “interested party” under the bid
protest provisions of the Competition and Contracting Act
of 1984 and the revised circular A-76. NFFE argued that
employees affected by the agency’s decision constitute an
interested party, and that NFFE was their statutory
representative.
GAO found, “that there is no statutory basis for an in-house
entity to file a protest.” A private sector firm would be
considered an interested party as, “an actual–offeror
whose direct economic interest would be affected by the
award of the contract or by failure to award the contract.”
GAO found that because federal employees could not be
considered prospective or actual offerors, it did not have
statutory authority to hear the Agriculture employee bid
protest.
GAO also sent a letter to Congress suggesting that it
consider creating an employee appeal right. The chair of
the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Sen. Susan
Collins, R-Maine, has introduced such legislation.
