Protests against Alliant 2 filed
By
Nick Wakeman
Five companies have filed protests over the $50 billion Alliant 2 contract. Are more on the way?
As of Tuesday morning, five companies have filed protests with the Government Accountability Office after the General Services Administration did not choose them as winners of the $50 billion Alliant 2 contract.
Among the protesters are Harris IT Services Corp. -- now known as Peraton -- and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions. They are both incumbents on Alliant 1.
The other protesters are Capgemini Government Solutions, Compuline International and Centech Group.
More protests could be on the way as GSA received 170 bids and made 61 awards. That’s a lot of disappointed bidders that could potentially file protests at GAO.
But whether it is one or 100, the immediate effect of the protest is the same. GSA cannot move forward with the new contract and agencies cannot start issuing solicitations for task orders until the protests are resolved.
A decision by GAO on the protests is not due until March.
The delay could be even longer if GSA looks at the protests and decides to issue a corrective action and re-evaluate its award decisions.
And there are still some Alliant 1 incumbents who still may file protests. Those include Alion Science and Technology, Macaulay-Brown, LGS Innovations, Tetra Tech and Vistronix.
Alion and Macaulay-Brown declined to comment but did confirm they bid on Alliant 2. The others did not respond to requests for comment.
Protesting this award will likely be an uphill battle as GAO already ruled in GSA during a set of pre-award protests that objected to certain aspects of the solicitation.
GAO ruled in favor of GSA’s evaluation criteria and general approach to the contract. That is a big plus in GSA’s favor.
Of course, there is always a chance GSA might look for a reason to add the protesters the contract and just move on.