GAO denies SAIC protest on Veridian STARS contract

A protest filed by Science Applications International Corp. about the Navy's award of a $154.4 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract to Veridian Corp. has been denied by the General Accounting Office, according to Veridian.


SAIC is the incumbent vendor on the contract, which supports the Naval Air Systems Command Weapons Division at China Lake and Point Mugu in California. The contract is for scientific, technical, administrative, research, development, test and evaluation services related to the Navy's development of weapons systems.


Veridian of Arlington, Va., won the five-year contract in July. A separate, similar bid protest of the same contract award, which was filed by EER Systems Inc. of Chantilly, Va., is pending with the GAO, according to Veridian.


A spokeswoman for San Diego-based SAIC previously declined to identify the grounds for the protest. A spokeswoman for Veridian said the firm has not been informed of the nature of the protest, and that GAO will publish its decision after it decides the EER protest.


SAIC issued this statement: "SAIC can confirm that the GAO issued a decision denying our Aug. 28 STARS protest. In its decision, the GAO noted that a separate protest filed by another unsuccessful offer was still pending. SAIC is continuing to perform our current work at China Lake while it awaits the GAO's decision in that separate protest."


Veridian is a provider of information-based systems, integrated solutions and services specializing in mission-critical, national security programs for the intelligence community, the Department of Defense and other U.S. government agencies involved in homeland security.


Veridian's team on the Navy contract includes Netzer Russell Consulting LLC of Ridgecrest, Calif., Synectic Solutions Inc. of Camarillo, Calif., SYS of San Diego and Vector Planning and Services Inc. of San Diego.