Judge sides with Accenture in $1B Army contract dispute

Accenture Federal Services has prevailed in its battle with Groundswell over the Army Enterprise Business Systems- Convergence contract.

The Army picked Accenture Federal last year for a potential eight-year, $1 billion project to consolidate several Army systems into a single platform built on SAP.

Groundswell went to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in October raising a series of allegations including that the Army favored Accenture Federal and changed the parameters of the evaluation while the competition was under way.

Groundswell claimed that the Army never provided a full answer on why Accenture Federal was chosen instead.

The Army competed the EBS-C contract under an Other Transaction Authority process. The competition had multiple steps that each company competed under before moving onto the next step. Step Seven is where Accenture Federal won the contract.

In his ruling, Judge Richard Hertling denied Groundswell’s motion for judgement on the administrative record of the competition. Hertling has essentially ruled against Groundswell's allegations.

The Army and Accenture Federal filed motions to dismiss, where the judge granted some parts and denied other parts. The judge also dismissed two counts because he didn’t think the court had jurisdiction.

Hertling has not released his written opinion yet. He has given Accenture Federal, the Army and Groundswell until May 30 to file a redacted version that the court can release publicly.

Some unanswered items for now include specifics on what the judge granted and denied in the Army and Accenture’s motions.

For example, the Army and Accenture argued that the judge should dismiss the case because in their view an OTA cannot be protested. They also argued that Groundswell’s protest claims were untimely.

Those two arguments addressed counts one and two in the Army and Accenture’s filing. In his one-page ruling, Hertling said these two counts were “granted in part,” leaving unclear which parts of these counts were granted and where were denied.

What Hertling says about those two parts will get to the heart of whether an OTA can be protested. We will not have any details on his ruling until the judge releases his opinion later this month.

That part of the ruling could have implications behind this single contract.

Officials at Accenture Federal declined to comment for this story. Army officials did not respond to a request for comment.

A Groundswell spokesman said, “We respect the government’s decision and remain committed to supporting defense modernization wherever we’re called to service.”

Groundswell filed its protest “only to seek clarity on the process, the basis for award, and to ensure our approach and solution was evaluated fairly,” the spokesman said. “It has never been our intent to delay or disrupt the mission.”