GAO: Recompete Telecom Contract

The Social Security Administration must recompete a $100 million contract it awarded to WorldCom Inc. in October 2000, following a ruling against the agency by the General Accounting Office, officials of GAO and Rockwell International Corp. said.

This is the second time the GAO has sided with Rockwell, which filed a protest against Social Security's decision to award WorldCom a contract for a nationwide, network-based call distribution system.

Rockwell, based in Milwaukee, filed its protest shortly after the contract award, disputing the way Social Security accounted for costs associated with connecting the proposed system into services provided through FTS2001, the governmentwide, long-distance telecommunications contract.