Protest trouble hits these TSA test, evaluation awards

The Transportation Security Administration’s plan to award a pair of blanket purchase agreements for test and evaluation support has run off-course as several losing bidders have filed protests.

The Transportation Security Administration’s plan to award a pair of blanket purchase agreements for test and evaluation support has run off-course as several losing bidders have filed protests.

TSA made one small business set-aside award to Analytical Services & Materials, while a second in the unrestricted track went to Science Applications International Corp.

Battelle Memorial Institute has since filed a protest against the award to SAIC.

Joint Research and Development Inc. and Global Systems Technologies are protesting the award to Analytical Services. All three protestors are arguing that TSA didn’t conduct a proper evaluation of proposals.

TSA is using the General Services Administration's Schedules program for these BPAs, which seek support for operational testing and evaluation and acceptance testing. Those are processes for evaluating and fielding security equipment that TSA relies on to do its mission.

The award to SAIC is worth up to $110 million, while the Analytical Services BPA has an $81 million ceiling value.

The Government Accountability Office is expected to issue decisions by Jan. 18.