Pre and Post Award Bid Protest

In a decision released on March 31, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced it denied and dismissed General Dynamics Information Technology, Inc.’s (GDIT) protest of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s award of a $6.52 billion contract to Leidos Inc. (LDOS) for the Department of Defense Information Network support services. LDOS was awarded the potential 10-year, $6.52 billion contract to help the Defense Information Systems Agency operate, maintain, and secure a military telecommunications infrastructure back in December 2019. The Global Solutions Management – Operations II...

Root9B, LLC, a small business in Colorado Springs, Colorado, protested a contract award to Chiron Technology Services, Inc. The National Security Agency (“NSA”) awarded the contract for cybersecurity training services. The Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) denied the protest. Background The NSA issued a Request for Proposal (“RFP”) in November of 2018. The RFP solicited proposals for the delivery of cybersecurity training courses for the National Cryptologic School under an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (“IDIQ”) contract. The RFP said that the NSA would award...

In February 2020, Acetris Health, LLC, a generic pharmaceutical distributor, challenged the VA’s interpretation of the Trade Agreements Act of 1979 (TAA) and the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in the United States Court of Federal Claims. The government appealed judgment by the Claims Court in favor of Acetris declaring the VA misinterpreted the TAA and FAR. The VA interpreted the TAA and FAR to define the country of origin of a pharmaceutical product as the country where a product’s active ingredient is manufactured. TAA The TAA prevents the VA from...

In December 2019, Raytheon Company filed a protest of an award of a contract to DynCorp International LLC by the Department of the Army. The award was for the security assistance training and advice as part of the Security Ministries of Afghanistan Advisory Program. Raytheon alleged that the Army failed to perform a price realism analysis and performed an unreasonable price evaluation, and improperly issued a solicitation with a latent ambiguity regarding which elements were fixed or reimbursable. Raytheon argued these mistakes led to a flawed best-value award decision.

Spry Methods, Inc., of McLean, Virginia, requested that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommend that it be reimbursed for the costs of filing and pursuing its protest challenging the issuance of a task order to Customer Value Partners, Inc. (CVP), of Fairfax, Virginia, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. 140D0419Q0011, issued by the Department of the Interior (DOI) for information management and assurance program support services.

Winning a bid protest at the General Accounting Office (GAO) is difficult. In 2019, claimants filed 2,198 protests and the GAO only sustained 77 of them. In the Matter of Noble Supply & Logistics, Inc. (Noble), decided on January 16, 2020, the GAO agreed with Noble and sustained their protest. BACKGROUND Prior to the time set for receipt of quotations, Noble protested the terms of a request for quotations (RFQ) issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) for the establishment of blanket purchase agreements (BPAs) under federal supply schedule (FSS) No. 51V, “Hardware Superstore,” for...

Last month, we wrote about the latest development in the much-litigated Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (“JEDI”) contract. That development was Amazon Web Services, Inc.’s (“AWS”) request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, following the filing of its November 2019 complaint at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”). AWS’ motion was aimed at preventing the Department of Defense (“DoD”) and JEDI contract awardee, Microsoft Corp. (“Microsoft”), from commencing performance on the $10 billion contract. On February 13, 2020, COFC granted AWS’...

On January 23, 2020, in a sealed motion to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Amazon requested both a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to prevent the Pentagon and Microsoft from commencing the multibillion dollar JEDI contract. The Department of Defense (the “DoD”) has previously indicated it intended to issue its first task order to Microsoft on February 11, 2020, and has also said it expected to make the unclassified portions of the long-awaited JEDI Cloud available to Defense users in the same month. Award of JEDI Project On October 25, 2019, the DoD announcedthat...

On November 14, 2019, Amazon announced it planned to protest the Pentagon’s surprise decision last month to award the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud-computing contract to Microsoft. On November 22, 2019, Amazon filed suit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC), but declined to comment beyond the announcement of the official filing. Award of JEDI Project On October 25, 2019, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced Microsoft won its JEDI cloud contract, worth up to $10 billion over a period of 10-years. With this, Microsoft will provide infrastructure and...

Metropolitan Interpreters and Translators, Inc (MIT) filed a bid protest in the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) to challenge an award of a contract that went to MVM, Inc. The contract was to provide translating services to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). Cross-motions for judgment and motion to strike by the United States, representing ICE, was heard by COFC with the protest denied.