General Dynamics IT fights to keep NASA contract

Gettyimages.com/Weiquan Lin

The $400 million contract supports NASA's Shared Services Center that approximately 80,000 agency employees and all 10 centers lean on for back-office resources.

No one likes to lose an incumbent contract, especially one with a $400 million ceiling that also impacts an entire agency's business functions.

So it comes as no surprise that General Dynamics IT has filed a protest to get at least a second shot at keeping the contract, which NASA awarded to Colsa Corp. in June for financial and business support services.

GDIT picked up the contract through its acquisition of CSRA, which won the contract in 2015. GDIT acquired CSRA in 2018.

The contract supports NASA's Shared Services Center at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

The Shared Services Center provides procurement, financial management, human resources services and business services to around 80,000 employees at 10 NASA centers and other facilities. Close to 500 GDIT employees are working on the contract.

GDIT filed its protest on July 3 and a Government Accountability Office decision is due Oct. 11.

Putting the protest aside, NASA included a transition period from one contract to the next. The current GDIT contract expires Sept. 30, and Colsa is set to take over on Oct. 1.