Lockheed Martin again protests HUD IT award to EDS
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Lockheed Martin Corp. has filed a protest of the latest award of the $750 million HUD HITS contract to EDS Corp.
Lockheed Martin Corp. has filed a protest to the Government Accountability Office of the latest award of the $750 million Housing and Urban Affairs Department IT infrastructure contract to EDS Corp. earlier this month. The contract is the result of a re-competition after the original award was steeped in controversy.
The protest bid is a replay of actions Lockheed Martin took last year after HUD initially awarded the lucrative contract to EDS. [See GCN coverage here .]
Lockheed Martin appealed on Monday based on 'HUD's unreasonable evaluation findings, the agency's failure to provide meaningful pre-award discussions and its failure to negate improper advantages EDS gained during transition activities conducted under the first, improperly-awarded contract,' said Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Nettie Johnson in a statement yesterday. GAO is expected to rule on the protest in mid-November.
Under the HUD IT Systems contract, EDS will furnish personnel, hardware and software, telecommunications, facilities and services needed to deliver HUD's basic IT functions at more than 80 offices nationwide. The contract has a base period of four months, followed by nine option years, with a total potential value of $750 million.
HUD will upgrade desktop systems and servers for its 18,000 users, enterprise data processing and management, information security, LAN and WAN services, and Web administration.
'We submitted the superior solution not once but twice,' said EDS spokesman Kevin Clarke, adding, 'We will do those things necessary to come to a resolution.'
A HUD spokesman said he could not comment on ongoing litigation.
Lockheed Martin had been the incumbent IT provider under the HUD Integrated Information Processing Service contract since 1990. When HUD initially awarded the follow-on HITS contract to EDS last August, Lockheed filed a protest with GAO, which agreed that HUD did not justify its choice of the higher bid from EDS.
Subsequently, both companies filed dueling complaints. HUD reopened the competition in February. EDS had started transition activities, working in tandem with Lockheed's IT staff.
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