award protest | The Contracting Education Academy

November 12, 2020 By cs

DoD’s $7.2 billion moving contract included ‘pervasive’ violations of procurement rules

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) overturned the Defense Department’s $7.2 billion contract to move service members’ household goods around the world because of what the independent bid arbiter called “pervasive” errors in the contracting process that prejudiced two losing bidders, according to two newly-released legal decisions.

GAO found U.S. Transportation Command, the agency responsible for the new Global Household Goods contract (GHC), ran afoul of federal contracting rules in no less than five key areas, beginning with serious questions about whether TRANSCOM’s chosen bidder, American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier Group (ARC), was eligible to win the contract in the first place.

The redacted decisions shed new light on the office’s rationale for telling TRANSCOM it should reevaluate bids in the GHC procurement. GAO first announced its verdict in two protests that challenged the GHC award on Oct. 21.

Both of the losing bidders who protested the contract award — HomeSafe Alliance and Connected Global Solutions — alleged that ARC wasn’t eligible for the contract because its parent company had a recent history of criminal and civil misconduct that it failed to disclose.

GAO didn’t explicitly agree with that position, but did find that TRANSCOM hadn’t done nearly enough of an investigation to credibly come to the conclusion that ARC was a responsible contractor.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-news/2020/11/dods-7-2b-moving-contract-included-pervasive-violations-of-procurement-rules/

October 29, 2020 By cs

Pentagon loses 2 bid protests that challenged $7 billion moving contract

The Pentagon will likely need to redo its award of a $7.2 billion contract intended to transform the military’s household goods moving system after two losing bidders won their cases before an independent arbiter on last week.

The Government Accountability Office agreed with numerous challenges two losing bidders brought after U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) awarded the contract to American Roll-On-Roll-Off Carrier Group (ARC), pulled the contract back for corrective action, changed its mind on the need for corrective action and then re-awarded the contract to the same firm.

GAO hasn’t yet released the full text of its decisions in the bid protests, saying they need to be scrubbed of procurement-sensitive information before they’re made public. But a statement the office issued Wednesday indicated the protest arbiter agreed with nearly all of the legal issues the protesters raised — a highly unusual circumstance in a government bid protest.

Both protestors — HomeSafe Alliance, LLC and Connected Global Solutions, LLC (CGSL) — had argued that ARC should have been ineligible for the award because of prior misconduct by its parent company. GAO appeared to agree with that position, or at least concluded that TRANSCOM didn’t do enough to verify that ARC was a responsible bidder, according to its statement.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2020/10/pentagon-loses-two-bid-protests-that-challenged-7-billion-moving-contract/

September 22, 2020 By cs

Why the Pentagon’s JEDI saga is far from over

The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure procurement may be grounded until at least February, according to a new timeline agreed to by the government and Amazon Web Services.

On September 4, the Defense Department awarded Microsoft its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract for a second time, concluding — amid a legal protest filed by Amazon Web Services—that Microsoft’s bid again represented “the best value to the government.”

Yet JEDI remains under a court-ordered injunction first issued in April, shelving any work under the contract until AWS’ protest is resolved. On Sept. 15, the Defense Department submitted—under seal—the source selection documentation it used to re-award the JEDI contract to Microsoft. The move formally concludes nearly five months of time that the Pentagon requested from Federal Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith to correct the JEDI procurement, and represents a significant step to potentially lifting the injunction.

“If there is an injunction imposed by the court, nothing can move forward,” Stan Soloway, president and CEO of Celero Strategies and a former Defense Department acquisition official, told Nextgov. “But, even if a protest is still in play, theoretically the government could declare an urgent need and proceed.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/09/why-pentagons-jedi-saga-far-over/168516/

September 9, 2020 By cs

Pentagon awards JEDI cloud contract to Microsoft for the second time

The decision follows a months-long legal challenge filed by Amazon Web Services.

The Pentagon awarded its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud computing contract Friday to Microsoft.

The decision follows a 10-month legal battle initiated by Amazon Web Services after the Pentagon selected Microsoft in October 2019 for the contract, worth up to $10 billion over the next 10 years if all options are exercised.

The award comes after numerous controversies and delays for JEDI — in addition to four legal protests filed by companies once in the running for it — that has the contract two years behind schedule.

“The Department has completed its comprehensive re-evaluation of the JEDI Cloud proposals and determined that Microsoft’s proposal continues to represent the best value to the government,” the department said in a statement Friday.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/09/pentagon-awards-jedi-cloud-contract-microsoft-second-time/168259/

August 18, 2020 By cs

Pentagon requests more time to review JEDI cloud contract bids

The Defense Department says it wants to further discuss Microsoft’s and Amazon Web Services’ pricing.

In a court filing on Aug. 10th, the Defense Department requested a 30-day extension to issue an award decision in its multibillion-dollar Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract.

The Defense Department had planned to award JEDI by Aug. 17 after numerous delays, including a 120-day remand sought by the agency in March to take corrective action on issues identified in a legal protest by Amazon Web Services after the Pentagon initially awarded Microsoft the contract in October.

“During the remand, DoD has identified areas of concern with respect to the revised proposals received from both offerors, resulting in multiple solicitation amendments, rounds of proposal revisions, and exchanges with the offerors,” the filing states. “In evaluating each offeror’s final proposal revisions, however, DoD has recently identified the need to reopen limited discussions related to certain aspects of the offerors’ pricing proposals.”

The filing indicates both companies would have another chance to submit questions and a revised bid.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/08/pentagon-requests-more-time-review-jedi-cloud-contract-bids/167599/

The Pentagon will likely need to redo its award of a $7.2 billion contract intended to transform the military’s household goods moving system after two losing bidders won their cases before an independent arbiter on last week.

The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure procurement may be grounded until at least February, according to a new timeline agreed to by the government and Amazon Web Services.

The decision follows a months-long legal challenge filed by Amazon Web Services.

The Defense Department says it wants to further discuss Microsoft’s and Amazon Web Services’ pricing.

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