Army's ITES-4H contract hit by more challenges

The Army has yet to make awards on its ITES-4H contract for commercial hardware, software and related services.

But the challenges against the $10 billion vehicle are growing. Insight Public Sector is the newest company to file a lawsuit at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, challenging how the Army is evaluating proposals for the IT Enterprise Solutions 4 Hardware competition

Insight Public Sector's complaint filed on Tuesday is sealed, but another filing talks about issues with the Army’s evaluation process.

Nine other protests were already active at the court. Seven have been consolidated into a single case under GovWave's complaint.

Toward the end of August, two more companies filed protests. Norseman Inc.'s lawsuit specifically targets phase two of the Army evaluations. Countertrade Products Inc. filed the second.

Judge Marian Blank Horn has been assigned to Norseman, Countertrade and the consolidated cases. But Norseman and Countertrade are separate protests. After Insight Public Sector filed a request for the same judge, Horn was assigned to their case as well.

She has not ruled on whether all of the cases will be consolidated into one, but that seems unlikely. The consolidated cases started February, so they are at a different point in the process with hearings having been held and various reports and documents already submitted.

Norseman, Countertrade and Insight Public Sector are at the very start of that process.

The cases consolidated under GovWave’s filing are Futron, Government Acquisitions, DH Technologies, Enterprise Technology Solutions, Unicom Government and Advanced Computer Concepts.

The Army has taken one corrective action and allowed ID Technologies, a subsidiary of CACI International, back into the competition. ID Tech was never part of the consolidated case.

The Army has said it expects 17 awards for the 10-year vehicle. No awards can be made while the protests are still pending.