Polaris protests start to multiply
More disappointed bidders join the group of those arguing the General Services Administration did not properly evaluate their proposals for the small business IT contract.
The Polaris IT services and solutions vehicle is now facing seven protests after five more companies joined the two challenges we previously reported on.
Each company is challenging aspects of how the General Services Administration evaluated their proposals, including how GSA scored past experience and which projects bidders were allowed to claim credit for.
GSA picked the top 102 bidders to receive awards in Polaris' general small business category. The awards were based on the highest technical ratings and fair and reasonable pricing.
The protesters are claiming that if they received better evaluations, their technical score would have been higher and therefore they would have received awards.
More protests could be coming as GSA received 569 proposals for Polaris. The agency also plans to make awards in specific small business categories such as women-owned, HUBZone and service-disabled, veteran-owned.
The Government Accountability Office will rule on the protests by mid-April.
Polaris is no stranger to protests. During the pre-award phase, several challenges worked their way through GAO and then the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
The protesters so far are:
- Assyst
- CompQSoft
- Ideal Systems Solutions
- Red Pine Solutions
- Rigil
- Tigent Solutions
- Visual Soft