Fight over $400M DOJ training contract drags on

The Justice Department continues in its struggles to award $400 million contract for international law enforcement training.

The battle over a $400 million Justice Department training services contract is well into year three as the agency continues to weather protests over its procurement decisions.

It’s worth noting that there have been significant gaps in the protests over the contract to support the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program, which provides training to police agencies around the world.

DoJ released its solicitation for the contract in July 2017. One year later, PAE filed a protest objecting to its exclusion from the competitive range. Their argument resulted in a corrective action by DOJ and that put PAE back in the competition.

That was great news for PAE because they were chosen as the prime for the contract in December.

But that didn’t sit too well with Science Applications International Corp, who holds the incumbent contract through the acquisition of Engility Corp. SAIC has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office under the Engility name.

SAIC/Engility is arguing that the Justice Department didn’t conduct a proper evaluation. If they had, SAIC/Engility says they would have been picked over PAE.

The protest was first filed on Dec. 30 and a supplemental protest was filed on Jan. 24. The supplemental came after DOJ filed procurement documents with the Government Accountability Office as part of the protest process. A decision is expected by April 8.