Protests challenge DHS' $10B FirstSource III contract
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By
Nick Wakeman
Close to a dozen companies are taking issue with the Homeland Security Department's evaluation process, pricing, and best-value decisions for the small business commodity IT vehicle.
The Government Accountability Office has 11 open protests on its docket that are challenging how the Homeland Security Department is conducting its evaluations for the FirstSource III contract.
The $10 billion vehicle covers commodity IT purchases and has gone through a series of pre-award protests that were resolved in 2022.
DHS uses the FirstSource program to buy hardware, software and related services from small businesses. The department is making the awards in different functional categories, including a first batch made earlier this month for value-added resellers.
The 11 protests take issue with multiple aspects of how DHS conducted its evaluations. These challenges include DHS' evaluations of proposals, pricing, and best-value tradeoffs.
Some of the protests also raise questions about how discussions were conducted. The protesters are also alleging that some awards went to companies not registered on Sam.gov and that parts of the solicitation were ambiguous.
The 11 protesters are:
- ATP Gov
- August Schell Enterprises
- PCi Tec
- DH Concepts Group
- DH Technologies
- ESCgov
- FCN Inc.
- NCS Technologies
- New Tech Solutions
- RavenTek Alliance
- Y&S Technologies
Both DH protesters are affiliated companies that share the same Leesburg, Virginia address for their headquarters.
The protests were filed between Sept. 20 and Sept. 23 with an expected decision from GAO falling between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2.