Award Protest | The Contracting Education Academy

July 31, 2019 By AMK

DoD’s JEDI saga continues with government, AWS returning fire in latest protest filing

The government and Amazon Web Services both laid out detailed arguments this week for why a federal court should reject a bid protest by Oracle America against the Defense Department’s multibillion dollar JEDI cloud contract.

The filings represent one of the last opportunities to defend the cloud procurement before the Court of Federal Claims issues an expected ruling in mid-July. In them, Justice Department and AWS attorneys argue that Oracle’s multifaceted challenge is without merit, and that DoD should be able to proceed with its planned award to either AWS or Microsoft in July.

Many of the arguments attempt to dismantle Oracle’s claims that the JEDI contract was fatally flawed because of conflicts of interest by three separate DoD employees with connections to Amazon. Oracle has argued that at least two of those employees — Deap Ubhi and Victor Gavin — had job offers from AWS in hand at the time they were involved in or influencing the planning process for JEDI.

But government and AWS attorneys said those concerns already had been investigated and addressed by the JEDI contracting officer, Chandra Brooks.

Keep reading article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/contractsawards/2019/06/dods-jedi-saga-continues-with-government-aws-returning-fire-in-latest-protest-filing/

November 29, 2018 By AMK

Poor debriefings spur bid protests

Just how bad are debriefings?

Pretty bad and possibly getting worse.

That’s the general conclusion of Washington Technology’s Insider Report on post-award debriefings and bid protests.

As the findings show, poor debriefings often lead to bid protests. So while bid protests often are criticized, they are really a symptom of a problem and not the main problem.

Generally, companies don’t want to protest. The research showed that a nearly three-quarters felt protests damaged the long-term relationship, but nearly the same percentage said they would protest again.

That tells us how important quality debriefings are. Companies want is to hear from their customers how their proposal fell short. This kind of feedback can change how companies do business, what kind of solutions they develop and even who they team with.

Keep reading this article at: https://washingtontechnology.com/blogs/editors-notebook/2018/10/debriefing-special-report.aspx

June 26, 2018 By AMK

How a contractor’s bid protest was a surprise boost for procurement innovation

Late last month, the Government Accountability Office overturned a $950 billion contract award to a small Virginia firm to provide cloud services for the Defense Department.

The deal was unusual not just for the extraordinarily high price tag, but for how it was handled. Instead of following traditional, competitive procurement rules, officials used something called a “production other transaction agreement” crafted by the Pentagon’s innovation outpost, the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx). This essentially allowed the department to make the award based on the success of a prototype developed by REAN Cloud, thus bypassing the government’s expensive and time-consuming traditional procurement process. It was a bold move, and to many observers, it offered a far more efficient way to purchase technology — where traditional procurements can take years to play out, OTAs can be conducted in a matter of months.

Not surprisingly, some traditional federal contractors weren’t happy. One of them, Oracle America, filed a protest with GAO, and the watchdog agreed with the company that the Pentagon’s use of other transaction authority was improper. GAO’s decision was a blow to many officials desperate to reform the government’s antiquated procurement practices.

But it shouldn’t be.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2018/06/how-contractors-bid-protest-was-surprise-boost-procurement-innovation/149151

June 18, 2018 By AMK

GAO sustains Oracle’s ‘other transaction authority’ protest

GAO’s much-anticipated decision in Oracle America, Inc. confirms that GAO will not hesitate to review the details of an agency’s use of its Other Transaction Authority (OTA) in lieu of issuing a procurement contract.

GAO determined that the US Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) both: (a) failed to properly provide for a follow-on production contract in its initial “prototype OTA” instrument, and (b) issued its sole-source production order before the prototype was complete, in violation of the requirements of the statute that provides OTA.

The Oracle decision acts as a shot across the bow to agencies exploring OTA agreements as alternatives to traditional contracting. OTA is not new, but the recent advent of using OTA for follow-on production contracts, combined with increased government interest in using creative alternatives to traditional procurement procedures, has made OTA agreements particularly popular in recent years. While GAO will not review an agency’s award decision once it properly elects to utilize an OTA agreement, GAO will examine the transaction to assess whether the agency properly chose to use an OTA agreement instead of a procurement contract. That is the context in which GAO sustained Oracle’s protest of TRANSCOM’s OTA award. GAO did not seek to limit TRANSCOM’s ability to use OTA, and specifically declined to find that the agency was obligated to use FAR-based procurement. Rather, GAO identified specific process flaws and implied that had the agency written its prototype OTA award slightly differently, and waited slightly longer for completion of the prototype project before issuing its follow-on production order, there may not have been a problem from GAO’s perspective.

The Oracle decision does not prevent any agency from seeking to obtain the flexibility and lower administrative burden that comes with OTA, but instead cautions that GAO will not shy away from policing compliance with the strict letter of the statutory provisions that provide OTA.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=708740

June 12, 2018 By AMK

IT contract worth billions survives litigation

Seven months after its original award, the $50 billion Alliant 2 contract vehicle has survived four legal protests and received an official effective date, the General Services Administration announced June 5.

GSA originally awarded the Alliant 2 IT contract to 61 companies in November 2017, with the goal of replacing the original Alliant governmentwide contract that expires in April 2019. Shortly after the award announcement, however, several companies filed legal protests, delaying the start of its performance and ordering period.

“The Court’s decisions further solidify the validity of GSA’s innovative procurement approach, Highest Technically Rated Offerors with a Fair and Reasonable Price,” said GSA Alliant 2 Procuring Contract Officer John Cavadias in a news release.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/acquisition/gsa/2018/06/07/50-billion-it-contract-survives-litigation/

The government and Amazon Web Services both laid out detailed arguments this week for why a federal court should reject a bid protest by Oracle America against the Defense Department’s multibillion dollar JEDI cloud contract.

Just how bad are debriefings?

Late last month, the Government Accountability Office overturned a $950 billion contract award to a small Virginia firm to provide cloud services for the Defense Department.

GAO’s much-anticipated decision in Oracle America, Inc. confirms that GAO will not hesitate to review the details of an agency’s use of its Other Transaction Authority (OTA) in lieu of issuing a procurement contract.

Seven months after its original award, the $50 billion Alliant 2 contract vehicle has survived four legal protests and received an official effective date, the General Services Administration announced June 5.

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