IRS to redo $2B electronic payment system contract awards

Gettyimages.com/Songsak rohprasit

The tax collection agency will rework the solicitation and take in revised proposals after a pair of protests.

The Internal Revenue Service has decided to take a second look at awards for a potential $2 billion electronic payment system contract after two disappointed bidders complained about how the agency evaluated proposals.

As a matter of fact, the IRS has decided to rework parts of the solicitation for the Epayment Card Services contract.

In August, the IRS chose ACI Payments Inc. and Link2Gov Corp. to provide solutions for the IRS to take in more electronic payments. That would include making estimated payments, installment payments, balance due payments and other tax-related payments.

NIC Federal and Value Payment Systems were the protesters who argued the IRS did not evaluate proposals correctly. NIC also claimed the IRS conducted a flawed best-value, tradeoff analysis.

The IRS has cancelled the awards and will make changes to the solicitation. Bidders can then file revised price proposals. The IRS will make a new best-value, tradeoff decision before it makes new awards.

With that corrective action, the Government Accountability Office has dismissed the protests.