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/