Two more join the T4NG2 protest fray
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By
Nick Wakeman
The $61 billion IT vehicle now has 16 protests at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and most of the complaints continue to focus on the Veterans Affairs Department's self-scoring methodology.
Two more companies have joined the group of protestors raising issues with how the Veterans Affairs Department awarded the T4NG2 contract vehicle.
Thunderyard Liberty JV II and Nineline Medical added their complaints about the potential $61 billion IT contract to the 14 other protests filed at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which now has 16 complainants.
Thunderyard Liberty JV II is a joint venture formed by service-disabled, veteran-owned small business Thunderyard Solutions and Liberty IT Solutions, a business unit of Booz Allen Hamilton.
Nineline Medical also is a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Booz Allen is one of the awardees for T4NG2's unrestricted portion.
A bulk of the protests against the Transformation Twenty-one Total Technology Next Generation 2 vehicle primarily focus on how VA used a self-scoring methodology to evaluate proposals.
VA made awards to the top 30 scores that could be verified and had what the department saw as the best pricing.
The protesters are complaining about how VA verified the self-scores, including what they gave weight to and did not.
VA also said they wouldn’t hold discussions with bidders, but would ask for clarifications. That seems to be a sticking point in the dispute and many of the protestors claim VA treated bidders differently.
The protestors want the court to declare VA’s T4NG2 awards “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and otherwise not in accordance with law.” They also want a permanent injunction and for VA to re-evaluate proposals in accordance with the solicitation.