The Government Accounting Office has decided in NIH's favor on the extramural support MEO protest. The GAO posted its decision (B-293336) on February 20, 2004. It reads:

"DIGEST: The protest is denied where the protestor failed to demonstrate that the agency unreasonably rejected its proposal---the only proposal received from a private-sector offeror as part of a cost comparison conducted pursuant to Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76---as technically unacceptable."

Dear Colleagues:

My apologies for the confusion caused by the message I sent earlier today about GAO's decision on the protest related to the extramural support MEO. A number of you have asked what the decision means.

Basically it means that the Government Accounting Office (GAO) has decided that the bid by a private-sector firm to provide extramural support services for NIH was given fair consideration, and the award for the work was appropriately made to NIH's "most efficient organization," or MEO. As you may recall, extramural support functions were subjected to the competitive sourcing (A-76) process last year, and NIH's MEO won the award to provide the functions. (See http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/sep2003/od-24.htm.) The private-sector firm that bid on the work subsequently submitted a protest to GAO, which has now been decided in NIH's favor, so the NIH MEO will be implemented.