SRA wins protest victory, for now
By
Nick Wakeman
GAO sided with SRA International as it battled for a GSA supply chain management contract, but recent history proves winning a bid protest doesn't automatically net a contract award.
The Government Accountability Office sided with SRA International and its protest of an award to CACI International Inc., but it’s probably too early for SRA to be celebrating.
CACI won a General Services Administration contract for a web-based supply chain management system, which prompted the SRA protest.
A public version of GAO’s decision isn’t available, but GAO’s agreement with SRA keeps the company in the running for the contract.
Generally, in these cases, GAO asks the agency to re-evaluate the decision and make a new award. So, that is no guarantee that that SRA will be the ultimate winner of the contract.
A great example of that also is a fresh GAO decision involving two small businesses battling for a $100 million contract.
Gaver Technologies lost a competition for a NASA contract to provide professional and engineering services to the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Another small business, Peerless Technologies, won the $100 million contract.
Gaver protested, and GAO agreed that the agency didn’t properly conduct a best-value decision. Some of its rationale was incomplete, according to GAO's decision. NASA recompeted the contract and again awarded the contract to Peerless.
Gaver again protested, but this time, GAO denied the protest because NASA built a better record for its decision.
The lesson here is that a bid protest victory doesn’t automatically result in a contract award.
Once GAO goes through its vetting process and releases the SRA decision, we’ll have more details and can provide more analysis on where the disputed contract is headed.