Protests haunt $200M DHS IT contract
By
Nick Wakeman
The Homeland Security Department is facing a third round of protests against its $200 million IT Operations Support Services contract.
A Homeland Security Department effort to bundle several contracts into a single contract has run into trouble again.
The IT Operations Support Services contract is now in its third round of protests as a group of small businesses is objecting again to how DHS is handling the consolidated $200 million IT Operations Support Services contract known as ITOSS.
CSRA, a large business and an incumbent on one of the bundled contracts, filed a protest in May 2017 that claimed DHS was converting the work to a small business. They questioned whether a small business would have the resources and infrastructure to manage the contract. CSRA eventually withdrew the protest.
DHS then awarded the contract to Inerso Corp. in September. Then four unsuccessful bidders protested -- Enterprise Resource Planning Systems International, 360 IT Integrated Solutions, Ace Info Solutions and Innovative Solutions Inc.
Those protests were dismissed by the Government Accountability Office after DHS said it would pull back the award to Inerso and take a corrective action.
Over the last week, those four have refiled their protests after Inerso won the contract again.
Inerso's team for the contract includes AECOM, AT&T, Linium and Venture NetComm.
The ITOSS contract supports the IT operations of DHS’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau. DHS pulled together at least three contracts into ITOSS, which is being competed as a task order under the Eagle vehicle.