Booz gets second shot at Justice contract
By
Nick Wakeman
Booz Allen Hamilton's protest strategy has reaped the company another chance to win a contract providing IT security staff to the Justice Department.
Booz Allen Hamilton will get another chance to win an IT security contract with the Justice Department.
The company lost a competition to High Performance Technologies Inc. to provide IT security staff support to the Justice Management Division, but filed a protest in December.
The Justice Department pulled back to the award to HPTI, a part of Dynamics Research Corp., earlier this week.
The agency is going to decide whether it clearly described its needs in its request for quotes; then, it will ask for new bids and make a new award.
The move by Justice makes Booz Allen’s protest moot, so the Government Accountability Office “dismissed” the protest, but GAO did not rule on its merits.
The contract is reportedly worth under $50 million.
While the dollar value isn’t high, the protests might not be over, particularly if Booz Allen wins this time. There will be nothing stopping HPTI from filing its own protest.
This customer, the Justice Management Division, works on a range of issues for the agency including policy for budget and financial management, personnel, training, facilities and procurement.
I don’t know details about Booz Allen’s or DRC’s Justice Department strategy, but the management division seems to be the kind of customer you want to own because of its portfolio. If you are going to introduce efficiency and cost savings efforts, which are always rich in IT, then this division is probably the best place to start.
This fight isn’t over yet.