Cognosante wins second shot at $1B VA contract

Cognosante has won another shot at an almost $1 billion task order that Booz Allen Hamilton won under the Veterans Affairs Department's "T4NG" contract for IT products and services.

The task order’s scope includes cybersecurity, enterprise management framework, system and data migration, cloud computing, program management, strategy, enterprise architecture and planning support.

Booz Allen initially won the $999.8 million contract in October and Cognasante filed shortly thereafter.

GAO made its decision last month but has yet to release a public version of the ruling.

But sources told me that Cognosante prevailed on three main points -- price evaluation, how a technical strength was assessed and whether the agency used the same standard to review technical assessments.

This task order sought industry support to help modernize the VA's IT systems through a consolidated procurement. The VA's IT Operations and Services directorate is managing the effort and oversees enterprise-level infrastructure engineering, systems implementation, production operations and IT service management for the department.

GAO’s decision recommends that VA take a second look at the proposals and re-evaluate them.

While Cognosante prevailed in this protest, that is no guarantee it will ultimately win the contract. The VA could award the work to Booz Allen again.

This time around, the VA just has to show that the next award attempt takes into account GAO’s findings.