Small vendors protest $12B HR contract

Awards for winners of the $11.5 billion Human Capital and Training Solutions (HCaTS) contract have been suspended temporarily while protests are heard.

The General Services Administration and Office of Personnel Management said last month that the huge training contract was awarded to 109 vendors--including 37 small businesses.

Since then, 11 large firms and 15 small firms have filed protests with the Government Accountability Office, according to FederalNewsRadio. The GAO has 100 days to decide the complaints.

Meanwhile, the GSA said the contract is temporarily suspended.

Brian Friel, principal at One Nation Analytics, wrote in a LinkedIn post that most of the protests appear to be due to bid rejections based on failed compliance reviews, rather than on low scores.

Offerors self-scored their capabilities and experience, and also submitted pricing and compliance documents evaluated on a pass-fail basis.

Friel said 80 proposals were submitted for the unrestricted contract, and 95 for the small business contract.

From those totals, 66 small businesses and 39 unrestricted bidders--the majority of offerors when counted across both pools--were eliminated from the competition based on compliance matters, Friel wrote. He said the strong emphasis on compliance could occur in future contracts as well.

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