HP, STG, Lockheed net bid protest victories
By
Nick Wakeman
Decisions to take a new look at two contract awards have given HP, STG and Lockheed Martin a second chance at wrestling awards away from their rivals.
Three companies in two separate cases are getting second chances to win prime contracts after the government decided to pull back the awards in question.
Hewlett-Packard Co. and STG Inc. both filed protests over an award to Booz Allen Hamilton to provide IT services support to the Defense Media Activity. The Booz Allen contract was awarded under the NIH Chief Information Officers – Solutions and Partners 3 contract.
The value of the contract isn’t known, but the DMA maintains websites such as the Defense.gov. It also provides news, information and entertainment to military personnel, civilian employees, contractors, retirees and their families in the United States and overseas, according to its website.
After Booz won the IT contract, HP and STG filed protests last week with the Government Accountability Office. This week, DMA pulled back the awards in a corrective action and is reconsidering the award to Booz Allen. When this happens, GAO dismisses the protests.
In the second case, Lockheed Martin was protesting a $700 million contract award to Raytheon to support the North American Aerospace Defense Command, commonly known as NORAD.
Lockheed has been the incumbent on the Integrated Tactical Warning/Attack Assessment and Space Support contract since at least 2009. But it lost the latest recompete to Raytheon.
GAO has now dismissed the Lockheed protest in the wake of a corrective action by the Air Force to take a second look at its award.
It should be noted that the dismissals do not mean that the protestors in these two cases will ultimately prevail and win the contracts. It only means that there was something in their protests that made the agencies question the award or at least question their ability to defend the award decision throughout the GAO protest process.
Several things could happen now. The agencies can amend their solicitations and ask for new proposals. They can enter into more discussions with the bidders to clarify their decision. They also could cancel the solicitation and start over. The last is the least likely scenario.
While these are definitely victories for HP, STG and Lockheed Martin, they are only one fight in a continuing battle.