MacAulay-Brown takes protest fight to court
By
Nick Wakeman
MacAulay-Brown was a winner of a $900M SOCOM contract, but protests have delayed the contract, and the company is taking the fight to the Court of Federal Claims.
MacAulay-Brown has been in a protest fight for several months as it has battled for a U.S. Special Operations Command contract worth $900 million.
The company was one of four winners of the contract to provide a variety of professional services including program management, technical, engineering and test support, production engineering, research and development, logistics, and financial management support.
SOCOM picked the winners – MacAulay-Brown, Booz Allen Hamilton, Raytheon Blackbird Technologies and CACI International -- in late July, but three losing bidders – Academi Training Center, Fulcrum IT Services and Jacobs Technology -- quickly followed with protests filed with the Government Accountability Office in August.
Those protests were dismissed in early September when SOCOM decided to pull back the awards and take a corrective action. Corrective actions usually mean the government is going to take a second look at the proposals and make a new award decision.
But MacAulay-Brown didn't like that move and has filed a complaint with the Court of Federal Claims objecting to the corrective action.
The grounds of their objection are unclear because the company asked the court to seal its complaint with a protective order because the filing “contains confidential and proprietary information.”
Attempts to get comment from MacAulay-Brown’s attorney were unsuccessful.
The case will move forward, and several deadlines have already been set. Next week, the government will file the administrative record of its contract-award decision by Sept. 29.
On Oct. 20, MacAulay-Brown will file a motion for judgment, and by Nov. 10, the government will file its response, including a cross-motion for judgment.
More responses are due Nov. 17 from MacAulay-Brown and Nov. 24 from the government before oral arguments are heard the first or second week in December. So, we are still a few months out from having this case resolved.
Meanwhile, the incumbent contractors that this pact was to replace will continue to provide support to SOCOM. The incumbents include Jacobs, Booz Allen, CACI and SRA International.