By Paul Bowen, Amy Conant Hoang, Erica Bakies and Jenna Lorence ( August 22, 2018, 1:15 PM EDT) -- The U.S. Government Accountability Office's recent decision in Oracle America Inc.[1] has garnered attention from the government contracts community for its review of an acquisition conducted pursuant to the U.S. Department of Defense's Other Transaction Authority. In the decision, the GAO examined the propriety of the DOD's award of a production OTA (P-OTA) following award of a prototype OTA. The decision does warrant notice in this regard, as solicitations for and awards of OTAs generally fall outside the GAO's bid protest jurisdiction, because they generally are not a "contract for the procurement of property or services."[2] However, the decision deserves notice in another regard: its analysis of why the protester remained an interested party to challenge the P-OTA despite declining to submit an offer in the underlying prototype OTA procurement....