Navy sole-source software contract faces protests
By
Nick Wakeman
The Navy wants to give CACI International another year to complete work on a financial management system, but two companies are arguing that they should have been given the chance to compete for the $10.5 million contract.
The Navy says only CACI International can meet some of their financial management system development needs, but Deloitte Consulting and TheraThink Inc. beg to differ.
The two companies have filed protests with the Government Accountability Office over the Navy’s decision to reject them and award a sole source contract to CACI.
CACI has been working on the joint staff’s enterprise resourcing planning system known as the Enterprise Business Accountability System or EBAS. The company is implementing Momentum 7.2 software. The Navy wants to extend their work for one more year at an estimated cost of $10.5 million.
CACI is to provide systems integration support and source code upgrades, which are Joint Staff requirements.
According to its sole source justification document, the Navy issued a request for information in February and received responses from Deloitte and TheraThink.
The Navy’s conclusion:
“A careful consideration of the responses confirmed that only CACI has the requisite knowledge and expertise necessary for successful contract performance. No other contractor could be injected into this complex and unique EBAS environment without substantial risks to Joint Staff operation. Obtaining these mission critical services elsewhere is impractical.”
The Navy is using the Alliant contract because the General Services Administration has already determined that the pricing on the contract is fair. The Navy also will do further analysis of CACI’s cost proposal once it is received.
A requirement of justifying a sole source contract is that the agency has to describe how it will remove barriers to competition in the future. In this case, the Navy said that future requirements will be handled on a case-by-case basis. However, they expect that once this phase is completed the software will move into a maintenance phase.
“It is anticipated that future maintenance requirements will be competitive.
Deloitte filed its protest on July 16 and a decision is expected by Oct. 26. TheraThink filed on July 6 and a decision is expected by Oct. 14.