Battle renews over $356M Veterans Affairs records contract

The battle involving a $356 million Veterans Affairs Department contract for file conversion services is now entering a third round of protests.

GovCIO won the three-year contract toward the end of calendar 2022 and GDIT filed a protest in January 2023, arguing that the evaluation was improper and that GovCIO wasn’t capable of meeting the requirements of the File-to-File Conversion Service with File Indexing Management contract.

The Government Accountability Office ruled against VA in March, saying the agency didn’t adequately document the reasons for choosing GovCIO. GAO told VA to re-evaluate proposals and make a new award decision.

VA flipped the contract to GDIT in August and GovCIO responded with its own protest. That protest was quickly dismissed when VA said it would take another look.

For a second time, the award went to GDIT and GovCIO came back with a new protest filed Dec. 26. A decision from GAO is due by April 4.

GovCIO’s argument hasn’t changed much from their protest in August. They are challenging the evaluation and claiming discussions between VA and GDIT were misleading and inadequate.

GovCIO is also continuing to allege that GDIT tried to gain an unfair advantage by trying to convince GovCIO’s partner Exela Technologies to quit the team.

We reported on those allegations when GovCIO filed their first protest in August. GDIT is the incumbent contractor.

The value of the contract has also changed during the protests. GovCIO's initial winning bid was $246 million, then GDIT won the contract in the re-evaluation with a $400 million bid.

Following the most recent corrective action and award, GDIT's bid is now $356 million.