Contracting Intrigue

From Network World:

The Social Security Administration says it will announce in September a new award for data networking services, jumpstarting a critical IT [Information Technology] project that has been delayed for more than a year following a successful -- but secretive -- legal protest of the original awards.

In June 2009, SSA awarded two data networking services contracts through the U.S. government telecommunications program known as Networx Universal. SSA chose Verizon Business as its primary data services provider and AT&T as its secondary carrier. A month later, failed bidder Qwest Government Services protested these awards to the General Accounting Office, which sustained the protest in October 2009.

For more than a year, SSA has been quiet about its WAN [Wide Area Network] plans. Now SSA says it is proceeding with its efforts to migrate its data services to the Networx program. ...

How SSA will move forward with its data networking services has prompted curiosity across the federal IT market. The General Accounting Office never released a public version of its decision to uphold the Qwest protest, so industry observers aren't sure what problems existed with the original awards. ...

Ray Bjorklund, a senior vice president with consulting firm FedSources, of McLean, Va., says he was "scratching my head why I couldn't find the full text of the GAO bid protest decision…For whatever reason, there was never a public version of the decision and…it remains under protective order." Bjorklund referred to the SSA WAN deal as an "intrigue."

SSA, meanwhile, says it needs to transition both its wide area network and toll-free voice services to the Networx contract from the predecessor program, FTS 2001, which expires in June 2011. "We are 87% complete with the transition from FTS 2001 to Networx," according to the SSA spokeswoman.