More OASIS+ protests fall short
Gettyimages.com/Wasan Tita
By
Nick Wakeman
The Government Accountability Office has denied three more challenges to the government-wide contract's small business awards, leaving just two more to be resolved.
The Government Accountability Office has denied more protests involving the OASIS+ professional services contract vehicle, allowing the contract to inch closer to its debut.
A final resolution that would clear the government-wide contract to open for business still be months away. One of the two remaining open protests is not due for a decision until February.
Vernergy Group filed its protest on Oct. 31 with a Feb. 10 decision due date. The other open protest from Wits Solutions Inc. will see a decision by Dec. 2.
In the last 10 days, GAO has denied three more protests on top of the one it ruled against on Nov. 7. GAO dismissed several earlier protests after GSA said it would take a corrective action.
The protests involve the small business competition for OASIS+, GSA’s vehicle for a broad range of professional services across the federal government.
Nearly 1,400 small businesses have been chosen as likely winners. GSA has not named the winners of the full-and-open portion of the contract.
The allegations raised in the recently-denied protests have been different enough from each other that GAO did not bundle them into a single decision.
GAO denied protests filed by Jefferson Consulting, AtVentures and Q2 Impact.
Jefferson protested GSA’s decision to reject its proposal because it was no longer a small business. The company recertified as large during the competition. GAO agreed that the company was no longer eligible for a small business award.
AtVentures raised objections to how GSA treated mentor-protégé joint ventures. GSA said that work examples had to be submitted by the protégé, not from its parent company. This is similar to the Mission Solaiya protest that GAO denied in early November.
Q2 Impact’s proposal was rejected by GSA because it is selling equipment from Huawei Technologies on another contract. Huawei is on a list of banned equipment manufacturers, but Q2 has a waiver its other contract.
GSA rejected the proposal because the company did not have a waiver specific to OASIS+
GAO will make more details on these decisions available after the documents go through a vetting process. We will write an update when we know more.