BALL AEROSPACE PROTEST DENIED

By Kent Berk on January 28th, 2010 in BID PROTEST LAW, BLOG

In this case, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. (“Ball”) challenged the award of a blanket purchase agreement to AT&T by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC), Counterspace Analysis Squadron for its counterspace program, which addresses the control and protection of U.S. space assets.

Ball argued that the GSA erred in its evaluation of AT&T’s cost and technical quotes. The GAO dismissed the protest, in part, as untimely and denied the remainder as lacking merit. In its decision, the GSA concluded that:

many of the challenges raised by the protester argue, in essence, that the price evaluation scheme set forth in the solicitation did not result in a meaningful evaluation of the likely cost to the government. As discussed below, we find that these arguments are untimely challenges to the terms of the solicitation, and merit dismissal. With regard to the other price and technical evaluation challenges–which timely address whether the evaluation was consistent with the scheme set forth in the solicitation–we find no merit to these arguments and deny the protest.

By doing so, the GAO upheld the award of the contract worth approximately $876,000 to AT&T. This decision highlights the importance of promptly challenging defects in the solicitation.