GAO Sustains ED RFP Protests of 12 Firms, Denies 4, Leaves 3 Hanging

The saga of the United States Department of Education (ED) RFP for Private Collection Agencies had a new development this week. Rumors were flying within the ARM industry the past two days that ED had sustained some or all of the protests that had previously been filed by those companies not selected in the last RFP.  

On January 5, 2017 insideARM reported that 11 protests had been filed as of that date. Earlier this month, in a related story, we reported that a total of 26 protests had been filed. Today the GAO website reflects a total of 47 separate protests. This does not mean that 47 companies filed protests; several companies filed more than one. 

On Monday the GAO issued a 40+ page decision on the protests.  However, that document was not made available to the general public. It was sent only to attorneys for the protesting companies, under a protective order.  It is likely a version of that document will be available to the general public in 7-14 days.   

Until the document is made available we can only speculate on the specifics.  However, the “results” of that 40+ page document were made public on the GAO website today.  It is like knowing the final score of a sporting event, but not being allowed to see the game.

The charts below depict the information provided on the GAO site as of today.

The following 12 companies had their protests sustained:

1. Allied Interstate, Inc. (Iqor)
2. Automated Collection Services, Inc.
3. Collection Technology, Inc.
4. Collecto, Inc., dba EOS CCA
5. Delta Management Associates, Inc.
6. Gatestone & Co. International, Inc.
7. General Revenue Corporation
8. Performant Recovery, Inc.
9. Progressive Financial Services, Inc.
10. Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp
11. Van Ru Credit Corporation
12. Williams & Fudge, Inc. 

The following 4 companies had protests denied:

1. Account Control Technology (2 of 3 protests denied, 1 not decided)
2. Alltran Education Inc. (formerly ERS) – 3 protests denied
3. Global Receivables Solutions, Inc. – 2 protests denied
4. Sutherland Global Services - 3 protests denied 

Continental Service Group, Inc. (ConServe) has 2 protests that are still undecided and Pioneer Credit Recovery has 2 protests that are still undecided. 

Now the big question is this: What does this mean? 

Without seeing the 40+ page document from the GAO it is probably too early to tell much. insideARM will continue to monitor and report as soon as the document is made public.