All NetCents II protests dismissed

The Government Accountability Office might be closed along with much of the rest of the government, but GAO’s bid protest group gave a small gift to eight contractors fighting for spots on the Air Force’s $6.9 billion NetCents II Products contract.

As indicated by sources on Monday, all of the protests filed against the Air Force’s third round of awards for the contract have been dismissed as the service plans a new corrective action that will include awards to all bidders on the contract.

The Air Force has tried three times -- and failed three times -- to make award decisions that could stand the heat of bid protests. This time, it appears they have decided to just throw in the towel and make awards to all bidders.

While official awards have not been made yet, and may be delayed by the government shutdown, it appears that the Air Force is ready to put this sad chapter in its procurement history behind it.

The contract will have 24 primes vying for task orders to sell the Air Force a variety of commercial IT products and related services. See my last blog for the list of all 24.

So, this chapter closes on NetCents II Products. These 24 will compete for task orders, and as one source told me, there could be several who never win a dollar under the contract.

At least the Air Force gets to move on and let market forces work their magic.

Of course, other protests are pending for other parts of the NetCents II program, namely the Applications Services portion of the contract, but that’s only gone through one round of awards, and the Air Force is now taking a corrective action.

Let’s hope it doesn’t take three more tries to get it settled.