Court starts clearing out protests against Alliant 2 Small Business

The battle over the General Services Administration’s $15 billion Alliant 2 Small Business contract for IT products and services continues to be tied up in the judicial arena but recent developments  have come out in GSA’s favor.

Five disappointed bidders saw their lawsuits dismissed by U.S. Court of Federal Claims in separate rulings on Sept. 7 and Sept. 13. These rulings were all re-issued with redactions on Sept. 18 and 19, according to court records.

Those decisions stand to leave Criterion Systems, Dynanet Corp., RX Joint Venture LLC, Technical & Management Resources, and Tista Science and Technology Corp. out of what many market watchers see as the decade’s largest government IT contract vehicle.

Two outstanding lawsuits remain in court over Alliant 2 SB: Integral Consulting Services and Metrica Team Venture. Integral is objecting to how GSA evaluated the company’s proposal, plus the agency’s claim that not all information it asked for in that bid was verified.

Metrica Team Venture filed its own lawsuit over the contract nearly two weeks after Integral, but that complaint remains under seal.

GSA officials declined WT’s request for comment regarding Alliant 2 SB, which remains under a stay in performance pending the outcome of the court case. The current Alliant 1 SB contract remains open for business.

The agency made 81 awards in February for Alliant 2 SB and subsequently received dozens of protests at GAO, which were dismissed after disappointed bidders took their challenge to the Court of Federal Claims.

The $50 billion Unrestricted track of Alliant 2 opened for business on July 1 after GSA won a series of favorable court rulings regarding protests against that source selection. Sixty-one companies will vie for task orders on the unrestricted piece. Both tracks of Alliant 2 have a five-year base period followed by a five-year option period.