CGI Federal protests $35M NRC acquisition system modernization award
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By
Nick Wakeman
CGI Federal claims the agency failed to properly evaluate Unison’s compliance with the FedRAMP cloud authorization program and past performance.
CGI Federal is pushing back on a the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's award of a task order that went to a competitor to modernize the agency’s acquisition management system.
Unison Software won the $35 million job in late September through the GSA Schedule. Unison was owned by the Carlyle Group for several years before being sold to fellow private equity firm Madison Dearborn in 2022.
NRC wants to buy a commercial-off-the-shelf or government-off-the-self solution that can integrate into the agency’s financial systems. The agency wants the ability to create, store and maintain all documents related to acquisitions, including contracts, purchase orders, and cooperative agreements.
NRC also wants the system integrated with other systems such as Sam.gov, Treasury’s G-Invoicing system and the Federal Procurement Data System.
In its protest, CGI argues that NRC should have eliminated Unison from the competition because the latter's solution is not compliant with the government's FedRAMP cloud authorization program. CGI says that was a pass/fail criterion in the solicitation.
CGI is also challenging Unison’s past performance rating and claiming there is a lack of documentation for NRC’s best-value determination.
CGI submitted the protest on Oct. 7 with a supplemental filing made on Oct. 25. The Government Accountability Office is due to make its decision by Jan. 15.