PAE-SGT team finally cleared for $608M NASA contract
By
Nick Wakeman
It has taken a while but a $608 million NASA support contract has cleared its last protest hurdle. Now a team led by PAE and SGT can move ahead with supporting the Kennedy Space Center.
It's been a slog, but a team led by PAE and Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies can finally move ahead with work on a $608.7 million NASA contract for base operations and spaceport services at the Kennedy Space Center.
Since the contract known as "KSC-BOSS" was awarded in August, it has been bogged down by protests, first at the Government Accountability Office and then at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
The court has now ruled against both protesters -- KSC BOSS Alliance and AECOM’s URS Federal Services business. KSC BOSS Alliance filed a protest at GAO and then with the courts objecting to being excluded from the competition because it was outside the competitive range.
URS filed its protest with GAO after the award was made to the PAE-SGT team. That protest was dismissed in October, then URS filed its suit at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in November.
The court ruled against KSC BOSS Alliance on March 15 and then ruled against URS on March 29. So far, only the decision against KSC BOSS Alliance has been unsealed by the court.
In its lawsuit, KSC BOSS argued that NASA relied too heavily on its adjectival ratings (good, very good, high, etc.) and points. KSC BOSS also claimed NASA didn’t give enough documentation for its competitive range determination, that several weaknesses assigned to its proposal were not justified and pricing was not considered correctly.
Judge Elaine Kaplan rejected KSC BOSS Alliance's arguments, instead finding in several instances that the NASA evaluator adequately weighted each bidders’ strengths and weaknesses and that KBS BOSS was treated fairly.
The ruling in the URS case will be interesting to read because they were the incumbent and stands to lose the most from the loss of this long-term award.
Ironically, KBR is a member of the KSC BOSS Alliance. But KBR acquired SGT last year so even though the lawsuit was rejected, they’ll still support NASA.
Work under the contract is described as “mission-focused institutional support” at the Kennedy Space Center. Duties include managing infrastructure and utilities and coordinating the use of facilities by NASA, the Air Force, private entities and other contractors.
Support services include operations, maintenance and engineering of facilities, systems, equipment, and utilities, management and spaceport integration functions, and mission support and launch readiness.