Guidehouse lodges pre-award protest of OASIS on-ramp

Proposals for the next on-ramp for the massive OASIS professional services are due next week and there is apparently something in the latest changes to the solicitation that Guidehouse doesn’t like.

Guidehouse filed a protest objecting to terms in the solicitation that they claim is unfair to the competition.

What that is exactly, I don’ t know. The Government Accountability Office isn’t saying and Guidehouse hasn’t responded to a request for more information.

The last changes to the solicitation were released on Sept. 19 when the General Services Administration posted several documents for the solicitation, including the self-scoring worksheet, cost-price template, forms for representations and certifications, and subcontracting plan template.

GSA has had some troubles with the on-ramp solicitation and reworked them over the summer.

These on-ramps are for Pools 1, 3 and 4. Pool 1 covers a wide range of professional services that agencies need. Pool 3 is essentially a subset of Pool 1 but focuses on the needs related to the military and aerospace. Pool 4 covers high-tech areas such as nanotechnology, biotech and other life sciences.

The on-ramps are GSA’s effort to bring in more companies and increase competition for OASIS task orders.

Guidehouse is bidding on the unrestricted track: mostly like in Pools 1 and 3, since the company isn’t known for biotech work.

The protest was filed Oct. 1 and a decision is due Jan 9. In the meantime, bidders will submit their proposals and GSA will evaluate them. But as long as the protest is pending, then GSA cannot make an award.