Protest withdrawn, ManTech celebrates big CDM cyber win
By
Nick Wakeman
Now that Perspecta has withdrawn its protest, ManTech can move ahead with its $668 million CDM DEFEND cyber award.
Other than celebrating a big win, ManTech International isn’t saying much about all the activity in the last week that allowed it to finally move ahead with its $668 million CDM cyber services award.
ManTech won Group E of the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation contract known as DEFEND earlier this summer.
Perspecta almost immediately filed a protest in July arguing that the General Services Administration and Department of Homeland Security made a mistake in ruling that its proposal was unacceptable. The Government Accountability Office had until Oct. 10 to render a decision.
But last Friday, Perspecta withdrew its protest and that cleared the way for ManTech to begin work under the five-year task order. With Perspecta on the sidelines, ManTech also issued a press release touting the win.
ManTech declined to comment beyond that press release. Perspecta hasn’t responded to my request yet.
Two things generally happen when a company withdraws. They saw the agency’s report responding to their protest and realized they would likely lose the protest. Withdrawing saves time and resources. Why fight if you know you are going to lose?
The second is more intriguing. It isn’t unheard of with large contracts under protest that the winning bidder finds some room in the contract for the losing bidder. In other words, the losing company joins the winning company’s team. No need to protest.
I don't know if that happened here.
I asked ManTech and a company spokesman said they aren’t discussing teammates. I asked Perspecta that question as well, but I haven’t heard anything back from them. I’ll update this post when I do.
But this is a big win for ManTech. They join Booz Allen Hamilton, CACI International and CGI Federal as winners of different task orders under the DEFEND program. At least one other task order is in the works.
Group E agencies that ManTech will support include the departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development, HUD Office of Inspector General, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, National Science Foundation, Securities and Exchange Commission and Small Business Administration.