More protests for Eagle II

Four more companies recently filed protests over the Homeland Security Department’s Eagle II contract, and it’s beginning to beg the question of why keep going?

The newest protests have pushed the total number to over 50. Most of them have been dismissed as DHS has informed the Government Accountability Office that it is taking a corrective action. The agency has prevailed on a handful, less than 5 by my count, but for the most part, DHS has had to back away from its award decisions.

Recently, DHS told bidders on its largest section of Eagle II (service delivery) that it was re-evaluating all bids, effectively admitting it got it wrong the first time or at least can’t defend its award decisions.

This latest batch of protests involves four small businesses and was filed between March 4 and March 12. The due dates for decisions from GAO range from June 12 to June 23. The protestors are:

• Innovative Solutions Partnership JV
• Oasis Systems LLC
• Telesis Corp.
• All Points Logistics Inc.

The fits and starts of Eagle II increasingly put the contract at risk of becoming irrelevant. The solicitation for Eagle II came out in November 2010, and bids were due February 2011. That’s over three years and counting.

Untold work that was awarded to Eagle I has been shifted to other contracts because Eagle II wasn’t ready yet for recompetes of Eagle I task orders. It still isn’t ready.

It seems like DHS has only two choices: Cancel the contract or give awards to all the bidders, and let the market sort it out.

The General Services Administration followed a similar tactic when it ran into trouble getting Alliant and Alliant Small Business through a blizzard of protests. It added nearly all the protesters to the contract. That seems to have worked out OK for that contract, which now seems to be humming along nicely.

DHS might be wise to follow GSA’s example and let Eagle II fly.