Protests stall $1.5B PACTS II contract

In the month since the Homeland Security Department named 30 winners to its $1.5 billion professional services contract known as PACTS II, 15 more companies have filed protests complaining that they also should have been picked as primes.

The contract, which also goes by the full name of Program Management, Administrative, Operations and Technical Support Services II, was set aside for service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses.

DHS made the awards to 30 companies in two task areas – program management and technical services and administrative and operations services – in late July.

As losing bidders began getting their debriefings, the protests started to roll in at the Government Accountability Office.

So far, 15 companies have filed protests, with one company having filed a supplemental protest.

The protesting companies are:

• Acquisition Research & Logistics Inc.
• Axiologic Solutions
• Beshenich Muir & Associates
• C2 PACTS Group
• Cyberspace Solutions
• GCC Technologies LLC
• Information Technology Coalition
• InTec LLC
• QSA Global National
• R3 Government Solutions
• Savvee Consulting Inc.
• Strategic Alliance Business Group
• Teracore Inc.
• Veteran Enterprise Technology Services
• Veteran Technologists Corp.

It appears that most of the protests are focused on the evaluation criteria DHS used in picking the winners.

The protests were filed between Aug. 22 and Sept. 2, with due dates for a decision from GAO expected between Nov. 30 and Dec. 12.

Of course, there is a possibility that DHS could take a corrective action and pull back the awards so it can take a second look the evaluations. That will depend a lot on the merit of the arguments raised in the protests.

Agencies generally have 30 days to respond to a protest, so we should know in a couple weeks how DHS will respond.

Until the protests are resolved, DHS cannot award task orders under PACTS II.