Battle for $2B DHA IT contract likely going the distance
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By
Nick Wakeman
All signs point to this being a waiting game on a Government Accountability Office ruling.
It looks like the fight over a $2 billion contract for enterprise IT services to the Defense Health Agency is going down to the wire.
We reported earlier that ManTech and Deloitte had renewed their protests at the Government Accountability Office over the agency’s decision to again award the contract to Peraton.
Peraton initially won the Military Health System Enterprise IT Services in August 2021, but DHA pulled back the award after ManTech and Deloitte protested.
DHA then took a second look at the decision and again awarded the 10-year blanket purchase agreement to Peraton in early April.
ManTech and Deloitte followed almost immediately with new protests, again raising complaints about the evaluation and claiming that Peraton had an organizational conflict-of-interest.
The companies have since made supplemental filings to the Government Accountability Office, likely in response to DHA’s filings defending the award.
A final decision from GAO is expected by July 28, so there is plenty of time for DHA to take another corrective action and especially if it looks like they will lose the decision.
But all sides are fairly entrenched in their positions when in the second or third round of bid protests.
My money is on a ruling from GAO. If and when that happens, we will be able to gain more insights into this competition.
But it’s a waiting game right now.