GSA, DISA face protests of billion dollar awards

CWTSatoTravel objected to the $1.4 billion E- Travel award going to Concur Technologies. SAIC protested DISA's $4.6 billion award for the Global Information G...

Two major contract awards worth more than $1 billion each are under protest.

SAIC submitted a protest to the Government Accountability Office Friday on the Defense Information Systems Agency’s award to Lockheed Martin for the Global Information Grid (GIG) Services Management-Operations (GSM-O) contract. DISA awarded Lockheed the deal June 18 that could be worth as much as $4.6 billion over seven years.

The week before CWTSatoTravel protested the General Services Administration’s award to Concur Technologies to run the governmentwide e-travel system. Under the new deal, which could be worth $1.4 billion over 15 years, Concur would provide travel planning, authorizations, reservations, ticketing and reimbursements and reporting through a streamlined interface.

In both cases, the protestors were the incumbents.

GSA awarded CWTSatoTravel one of three spots under the E-Travel program awarded in 2003.

“The protest is based on discrepancies in both the evaluation itself and the associated process that was followed,” said CWTSatoTavel spokeswoman Michelle Surkamp in an email. “CWTSatoTravel has requested a review by the GAO as permitted under federal procurement law. We do not have any further comment to make except through the protest process.”

A GSA spokeswoman said the agency doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.

A request to Concur Technologies for comment was not immediately returned.

This is the second protest CWTSatoTravel filed against GSA.

In April 2011, GAO upheld CWTSatoTravel’s objection to GSA’s solicitation and the fact that some of the requirements were “overly broad and ambiguous.”

GAO has until Sept. 24 to decide on the merits of CWTSatoTravel’s protest.

As for the DISA GIG GSM-O contract, SAIC ran the program since 2001.

“We are disappointed in the government’s decision to not award us the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Global Information Grid (GIG) Services Management (GSM) contract,” said SAIC spokeswoman Melissa Lee Koskovich in an email statement. “We feel our solution is the best value for the customer and we are proud of our performance history on this contract. We have a strong and agile team, and because of our high technical readiness levels, we feel we are the best choice to ensure secure global communication and information-sharing by providing provisioning, net operations and assurance, and network maintenance services on a worldwide basis, including support of the military’s global information grid. We look forward to working with this key defense customer to resolve this matter.”

In an emailed statement, a Lockheed Martin spokesman said the DISA bidding process was “highly competitive and comprehensive” and that Lockheed subimtted “an affordable and innovative solution.”

“We regard this as an opportunity to coordinate with DISA to improve the speed and efficiency of information exchange between our joint warfighters around the world as well as their commanders and allies,” the spokesman said in the statement. “We look forward to beginning work on this critical mission.”

A spokeswoman for DISA said in an email, “We cannot provide information specific to the contract protest or related matters during the protest period.”

GAO has until Oct. 1 to decide on SAIC’s protest.

RELATED STORIES:

Lockheed lands big Defense IT contract

GSA to launch $1.4B next-generation travel management system

GAO upholds one of four protests under E-Travel RFP

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