Peraton wins partial victory in battle for $655M Air Force contract
By
Nick Wakeman
Peraton has won a court injunction to stop the Air Force from making a final award of a $655 million contract but it failed to convince the judge that a bridge contract should not have gone to its competitor.
Peraton has won a bit of victory in its continuing battle for an Air Force contract worth up to $655 million.
A judge with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has issued an injunction to stop the Air Force from making an award of the contract known as the Engineering, Development, Integration and Sustainment contract, or EDIS.
Engility, now part of Science Applications International Corp., first won the contract but then Peraton successfully protested the award at the Government Accountability Office.
But now Peraton is fighting the Air Force over how it is implementing GAO’s recommendations. Peraton said that SAIC/Engility wasn’t eligible for an award because the latter's proposal didn’t include a small business plan that met the requirements of the solicitation.
In its recommendations, GAO told the Air Force to pull back the Engility award and hold discussions with all three bidders -- Peraton, SAIC/Engility and a third unnamed company.
Peraton disagrees with this approach, because in essence SAIC/Engility has an opportunity opportunity to revamp its proposal.
Another part of Peraton's protest is the Air Force's decision to award a bridge contract to SAIC/Engility to perform the work under EDIS until the final award can be made. The Air Force decided not to extend the incumbent contract held by Lockheed Martin. But the court doesn’t seem to be bothered by this.
The injunction granted by Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith only applies to the award of the final contract. The Air Force cannot make an award until the court case is resolved.
The court indicated that the Air Force’s decision to open discussions about the small business participation and to allow SAIC/Engility to change its proposal may not be “rational.”
But the court wants a “fuller understanding of the parties’ arguments regarding the ambiguity or clarity of the small business requirement.”
By July 30: the Air Force, Peraton and SAIC/Engility will need to propose a schedule to the court for further proceedings.
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