Chenega takes lost protest to Court of Federal Claims
By
Nick Wakeman
Chenega Healthcare Services has decided to appeal a GAO ruling against its protest of an Energy Department decision to not let the company replace its general manager on a bid.
Chenega Healthcare Services has decided to appeal a Government Accountability Office decision to deny a bid protest.
The company will take the case to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, according to their attorney Stowell Holcomb. He declined to comment on the case beyond that.
Chenega filed its protest with GAO after the Energy Department eliminated the firm's bid from a competition for a contract to support National Training Center at Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico.
Chenega was the incumbent but its general manager on the contract couldn’t continue to do the work. Energy allowed Chenega to replace him on the current contract.
The company had already submitted its proposal for the recompete, but Energy wouldn’t let them amend it with the new general manager.
Energy declared the proposal non-compliant and eliminated Chenega from the competition. The contract was then awarded to Kupono Government Services.
GAO ruled that the Energy Department acted with its rights to eliminate Chenega. The protest was denied.
As I wrote in an earlier blog post, it doesn’t make much sense as to why Energy wouldn’t consider the replacement the agency had already decided the person was qualified to continue the work on the current contract.
Now we’ll see what the Court of Federal Claims thinks.