Dueling protests hit Afghan army contract

The protest fight over a $245 million contract to support Afghan army and police facilities has another wrinkle – dueling bid protests.

When the U.S. Army competed the contract, the incumbent, Vectrus, lost to IDS International Government Services and filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office. The protest led to a corrective action with the Army saying it would amend its solicitation.

Something in the solicitation didn’t sit right with Vectrus, so the company filed another protest. I covered that part yesterday.

In the meantime, the Army awarded a $3 million bridge contract to Vectrus so the company could continue to support the facilities until the new contract is in place.

That didn’t sit well with IDS, which filed a protest with GAO over the bridge contract.

From the dates on the GAO docket, both companies filed their protests on April 7, but I missed the IDS protest when I was going through the system yesterday.

Decisions on both protests are expected by July 16.