Booz Allens's $133M VA Award May Be Biased: Report

[think]

Booz Allens's $133M VA Award May Be Biased: Report

By Megan Stride - Law360, Chicago (December 21, 2011, 6:37 PM ET)

The government's award of a $133 million contract to Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs information security services may have resulted from a biased bid evaluation process, according to a VA watchdog's report released Tuesday.

In a review, the VA's Office of Inspector General found that the Secure VA-Chief Information Security Officer Support Services acquisition process demonstrated a potential bias because the awarding agency considered a bidder's knowledge of VA procedures and practices as a significant selection factor without disclosing the importance of such knowledge when it asked for bids.

The technical evaluation process therefore favored handing the contract to Booz Allen, the incumbent contractor that had already provided the VA with information assurance and information technology security services for the past two years, according to the report.

The VA ended up awarding the $133 million contract to Booz Allen in September 2010, just 27 days after it issued its bid solicitation, agreeing to pay a premium of $18 million more than one of the other bids and $24 million more than the other, the watchdog said.

The contract award procedures "did not promote full and open competition in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation," the report said....

Full article:

http://www.law360.com/articles/295678/booz-allens-s-133m-va-award-may-be-biased-report

[sabrina 1]

1. Well, they do have an advantage considering their former CEO, now Director of Intelligence Clapper

is in the position of being able to influence Congress regarding what they fund for our 'National Security'. But an old Bush guy like Clapper would never lie, or use his position, to do something like that.

To think that our security is in the hands of these 'Contractors'.

[liberal_at_heart]

2. may be biased? That's an understatement.