SEWP V protests rise to 17

The total number of protests over the NASA SEWP V awards has reached 17.

We are probably close to the end of the time period where we will see new protests being filed with the Government Accountability Office. The SEWP awards came out Oct. 1 for one batch and then Oct. 15 for another.

Companies have a 10-day window to file a protest following their debriefing by the agency. I’m assuming that most companies have had their debrief, but I’m trying to confirm that with NASA.

If the number holds steady at 17, or even if it goes up to 20, I’d take that as a victory for NASA, considering they received 233 proposals and made 97 awards to 73 companies. Some companies won in multiple categories.

Working off the assumption that the number of bid protests won’t grow significantly, the next big question is how will NASA react?

Once agencies are given notice that a protest has been filed, they have 30 days to respond. It is usually during this time that agencies take a corrective action because they recognize that the protest has identified a mistake they unwittingly made.

Corrective actions can range from giving the protesting company a contract to pulling back all the awards and re-evaluating the bids.

We should know by early-to-late December whether NASA intends to fight on through the Government Accountability Office or whether they will take a corrective action.

SEWP program has been so well run over the years that I’m betting that their awards can stand up to scrutiny by GAO. This one just might go through the entire bid protest decision.

Of course, a corrective action that adds the protesters to the contract is a very conservative move. Imagine the embarrassment if NASA lost the bid protests? But a corrective action would likely lead to the quickest resolution.

As a reminder here are the protesting companies:

• 4 Star Technologies Inc
• Advanced Computer Concepts
• Akira Technologies, Inc.
• AlphaSix Corporation
• BahFed Corp
• Federal Technologies Solutions, Inc.
• i3 Federal, LLC
• Koi Computers, Inc.
• KPaul Properties, LLC
• Marshall Communications Corporation
• Minburn Technology Group LLC
• NCS Technologies, Inc.
• Technica Corporation
• Technology Integration Group
• Technology Solutions Provider, Inc.
• Vology LLC
• UNICOM Government Inc.