GAO denies Unisys protest over TSA contract

Unisys has lost an effort to overturn the Transportation Security Administration's award of a $489 million contract for information technology infrastructure to rival Computer Sciences Corp.

After TSA awarded the contract to CSC in May, Unisys protested to the Government Accountability Office, which on July 27 denied the company's protest.  

Although Unisys submitted a lower bid than CSC--offering to run the TSA Information Technology Infrastructure Program for $396.9 million--the evaluation criteria was for "best value," meaning that price alone was not meant to solely determine the outcome.

In its May protest, Unisys also relied on a number of arguments that the GAO said were not timely. GAO oftentimes enforces a strict 10 days deadline for filing a protest from when the grounds of an objection are known, or should have been known. Unisys objections over TSA handling of its technical proposal, for example, were raised after that deadline had passed, the GAO said.

A Unisys argument that the TSA source section authority inadequately documented her contractor selection was flat out rejected as the GAO found plenty of documentation material.

This Unisys protest is actually the second one the company has filed over the TSA infrastructure contract; when TSA attempted to award the contract to CSC in September, it successfully protested to the GAO, which required TSA to re-evaluate company proposals.

With its latest protest attempt denied, Unisys has little recourse. It can attempt to file an appeal, but should it do so, the GAO will not suspend CSC from starting to perform contract activities, as automatically happens in first-round protests. GAO also generally doesn't overturn its decisions. Unisys could also go to the Court of Federal Claims, but companies often shy away from taking protests to that court since the court doesn't automatically suspend contract work and funding litigation can be expensive.

TSA awarded CSC the contract through the DHS EAGLE multiple award contract vehicle; its value of nearly half a billion takes place over five years.

In related news, DHS has announced that the final request for proposals for EAGLE II should be released around Oct. 1.

For more:
- download the GAO decision (.pdf)
- see the latest DHS EAGLE II status letter (.pdf)

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