Veterans Affairs Department auditors say Booz Allen Hamilton was the recipient of potential bias toward an incumbent when the VA awarded it a $133 million contract in September 2010 for information security, privacy and risk management support.

In an audit dated Dec. 20, the VA office of inspector general says the McLean, Va.-based government contractor's bid was the most expensive of the three companies that responded to a Sept. 1, 2010 request for quotations to support the VA office of information protection and risk management.

Two unidentified competitors gave quotes of approximately $108.9 million and $115 million, respectively. One of them would have likely won the contract were it not for the VA's unacknowledged use of knowledge of VA procedures and practices as a key evaluation factor, auditors say.

Auditors say knowledge of federal agency practices is a permissible evaluation criteria, but that the RFQ didn't specify it as the significant factor evaluators made it out to be. In the RFQ section regarding proposal submission instructions, the VA did specify that knowledge of VA procedures should be included as part of personnel qualifications. But, "this passing reference was not a clear disclosure," auditors add, especially since the RFQ section on evaluation factors itself made no reference to the importance of VA-specific experience.

In the official VA response to  the audit, Glenn Haggstrom, executive director of the VA office of acquisition, logistics and construction, takes issue with the auditors conclusions, stating that evaluators did not in face make previous VA experience a key factor.

"Basically, if the word ‘VA' is mentioned...then [auditors] mistakenly assumed it was the sole basis for the assessment," Haggstrom writes.

In response, VA auditors say the technical evaluation document is filled with references to VA experience only, including one statement that explicitly finds BAH's incumbency to be a strength.

For more:
- download the report, OIG 11-01508-24 (.pdf)

Related Articles:
Omnibus trims top of VA IT budget 
IG: VA spent more than $1.6M on questionable PMAS oversight contract 
VA lacked contractor cybersecurity oversight