The Government Accountability Office has denied a MicroTech protest of a $105.6 million task awarded to Telos Corporation to support Air Force defensive cyber operations.
The GAO’s decision, announced Wednesday, was finalized in November 2017 after MicroTech complained that Air Force officials didn’t consider its full management plan and staffing approach proposal for the cyber support contract.
Companies currently under the Air Force’s Network-Centric Solutions-2 NetOps and Infrastructure contracts received notice of proposals for defensive cyber support in June 2017. Officials advised that technical factors, including management plans, would be considered more important than both past performance and price when determining the awardee.
Air Force officials received ten proposals for the one-year task order, which included four one-year options.
“The source selection evaluation board (SSEB) evaluated proposals and found all but the awardee’s proposal to be unacceptable,” GAO officials wrote in their report on the protest.
MicroTechnologies proposal was deemed unacceptable due to deficiencies in its technical approach for how it would support defensive cyber operations.
Telos was awarded the contract on Aug. 28, and MicroTech filed its protest on Sept. 5.
Officials with MicroTech claimed that information relevant to its management plan went unconsidered because it was not included in the proper section of its proposal.
The SSEB points to Microtech’s proposal explaining that its project manager has successfully managed cyber support personnel and has the necessary qualifications, but this information was not made clear in its technical factor’s proposal.
“MicroTech does not offer a standalone strategy for how they will align contractor personnel experience and qualifications to each of the [performance work statement] tasks,” SSEB officials wrote.