Army's $365M contract cancellation sparks court battle

The Army thinks the easiest way to solve issues with a $365 million contract that it set-aside for women-owned small businesses is to cancel and start over.

But that is not sitting well with some of the bidders.

In 2023, the Army picked Advanced Technology Leaders Inc. to be the prime on the PEO STRI Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance III contract.

But three bidders have since filed protests at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims — Will Technology, StraCon Services Group and Mayvin.

One of their major accusations was that ATL had an organizational conflict-of- interest through its subcontractor Seneca Global Services.

After the protests were filed, the Army agreed to investigate the OCI allegation and found that there was a conflict. The Army pulled back the award to ATL.

Court documents indicate the Army agreed to pull back the award and to adjust the labor rates in the solicitation. Bidders would be able to submit amended proposals. That was at the end of 2023.

But there was an aspect of the corrective action that didn’t sit well with the protesters. The Army said that ATL could continue to compete as long as it didn’t have Seneca as a teammate.

This kicked off another lawsuit at the Court of Federal Claims by Mayvin, which is arguing that the Army contracting officer erred in allowing ATL to remain in the competition because he didn’t have the approval of the chief of the contracting office.

Mayvin argues in its filing that the contracting officer didn’t have the authority to keep ATL in the competition, plus that the CO could not approve ATL’s proposed remedy to its OCI issue. Only the chief of the contracting office can do that.

Fast forward to July, the Army made a filing that the senior contracting official and the source selection authority agreed the best course of action is to reject all of the proposals and cancel the solicitation. The award to ATL, which was on hold during the protests, is officially canceled as well.

Mayvin is countering that the Army’s cancellation raised new issues that the court needs to resolve. The company filed a supplemental complaint on Aug. 16. The Army is supposed to respond by Friday.

StraCon, an earlier protester, is voicing its opposition to Mayvin’s motion.

Mayvin apparently wants the court to narrow the Army’s corrective action. StraCon wants an earlier corrective action to be put in place and has joined the lawsuit, but on the Army’s side.

Both Mayvin and StraCon opposed the award to ATL and the cancellation of the solicitation, but the filings indicate the protesters want different solutions to resolve the matter.

Once the Army and/or StraCon file a response, Mayvin has until Sept. 6 to file its response to their response.