Unisys withdraws protest to GAO over TSA's ITIP contact
Unisys filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office over the awarding the TSA’s Information Technology Infrastructure Program (ITIP) contract to Computer Sciences Corp; the ITIP award has been worth over $1 billion to Unisys and going forward was valued at $500 million over five years to run TSA’s information technology infrastructure; Unisys has now withdrawn the protest
Unisys Corp. has withdrawn its protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the awarding of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Information Technology Infrastructure Program (ITIP) contract to Computer Sciences Corp., a Unisys official confirmed Wednesday. Unisys spokesman Brad Bass said he had had no further information.
Washington Technology’s David Hubler writes that the protest, filed 19 February, was the company’s second over the ITIP award, for which Unisys was the incumbent since the inception of the contract in 2002.
At the time, a statement from Unisys said only, “We believe that the TSA has failed to act in accordance with the GAO recommendations of Jan. 20, 2010.”
Hubler writes that in its ruling on 20 January, GAO recommended that TSA reopen the competition.
GAO said Unisys and General Dynamics Corp. were not fully informed about the basis for preparing pricing proposals in terms of the incentive fee. General Dynamics also was misled about its proposal page and the section relating to risk, the GAO said.
The company filed an initial protest in July 2008 with GAO and the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Dispute Resolution for Acquisition. Unisys filed the FAA protest because TSA formerly used FAA’s procurement regulations before adopting the GAO’s Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) in June 2008.
Unisys Corp., of Blue Bell, Pennsylvania., ranks No. 32 on Washington Technology’s 2009 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.
