Army Sides With Protesters on $1.4 Billion Contract

The Army Materiel Command has upheld part of a protest filed by two unsuccessful bidders over the Army's five-year, $1.4 billion Maxi-Minis and Databases-1 contract.


The contract was awarded in August by the Communications and Electronics Command to IBM Corp. of Armonk, N.Y., and GTSI Corp. of Chantilly, Va., but Litton PRC Inc. of McLean, Va., and Federal Data Corp. of Bethesda, Md., filed protests shortly after the awards were announced. Federal Data is now part of Logicon Inc. of Herndon, Va.


The Army Materiel Command, which managed the dispute resolution process, let stand the award to IBM. But the command upheld in part and denied in part the protest against GTSI, according to an Army Materiel Command spokeswoman.


The command directed that the Communications and Electronics Command take some corrective action. That action was not specified but could include reopening the bidding among the remaining companies for a second award.


The contract is worth a potential $618 million to IBM and $857 million to GTSI. When the contract was awarded, GTSI Chairman and Chief Executive Dendy Young touted the win as the largest contract in the company's history.


The MMAD-1 contract is to provide the Army with commercial, high-end 64-bit servers, workstations, operating systems, software, networking, engineering, training and support services. The Navy and the Internal Revenue Service also are expected to be heavy users of the contract.


While IBM remains an awardee under the contract, a materiel command spokesperson said it would be "prudent" to expect task orders to be delayed until remedial action is taken.