Eagle Harbor's $377M Energy training win upheld
Gettyimages.com/ KEHAN CHEN
By
Nick Wakeman
The company weathered multiple protests before it finally secured the contract to manage and operate the department's national training center.
The Government Accountability Office did not find any merit in the challenges to a $377 million Energy Department employee training support contract.
Eagle Harbor first won the contract in late 2022. A series of bid protests pushed the department to pull back the award, then rework the solicitation and new award.
Kupono Government Services then filed a protest arguing that the corrective action didn’t go far enough. The Government Accountability Office agreed and told Energy in a July 2023 decision to let bidders revise their entire proposals.
After doing that, Energy made a new award in July but stuck with Eagle Harbor.
Kupono filed a new protest challenging the evaluation of proposals, past performance and costs. The result was a flawed best-value tradeoff analysis, the company argued.
GAO was not persuaded by Kupono's arguments and denied the protest on Wednesday. The decision is still under a protective order, so details are not available. Attorneys are reviewing the document before it’s public release.
This is a loss for Kupono, the incumbent on the contract to manage and operate Energy’s national training center that is geared toward the department's employees.