Contractors have until Sept. 30 to resubmit ENCORE III bids

Defense contractors have until Sept. 30 to resubmit proposals for the Defense Information Systems Agency's controversial ENCORE III information technology services contract that could be worth up to $17.5 billion.

The multiple-award ENCORE III information technology services contract is intended to help the Pentagon and other government agencies migrate to a new joint information network. Defense contractors, however, oppose the program's lowest-price, technically acceptable approach, which remains a feature of ENCORE III, despite pre-award protests sustained by the Government Accountability Office in August.

Shortly after the GAO decision, Inside Defense reported that DISA had no plans to drop the LPTA structure from its soon-to-be-amended ENCORE III solicitation.

The protests, filed by Booz Allen Hamilton and CACI International, highlight the LPTA contract structure as a specific point of contention.

The decision from GAO, however, does not preclude DISA from sticking with the LPTA approach, stating instead that the agency failed “to provide a reasonable basis to compare the cost of competing proposals,” and improperly excluded “from competition any proposals with a total proposed price 50 percent below the trimmed average total proposed price.”

But GAO sees “no basis to object to the agency’s decision to use a lowest-price, technically-acceptable selection scheme,” the decision states.