KPMG, TekSnap protest elimination from $10B State Department contract

State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C.

State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. Gettyimages.com/Glowimages

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Both have gone to the Government Accountability Office with complaints about how State handled proposals for the enterprise IT vehicle.

Two disappointed bidders have filed protests after failing to make the cut for the State Department’s $10 billion Evolve contract.

State wants to use the multiple-award contract for enterprise-wide IT projects and has been evaluating proposals for more than a year.

Bids were originally due in January 2023, but the department extended that deadline multiple times up until October 2023.

KPMG and TekSnap are challenging the department’s decision to not award them places on the vehicle.

The companies submitted proposals for different functional areas of the vehicle.

KPMG's bid is for Evolve's application development functional area, which has yet to be awarded. The company alleges the department improperly assigned a weakness to the firm’s proposal and evaluated proposals disparately.

Those mistakes led to a flawed best-value determination, according to KPMG.

TekSnap is pursuing the network and telecommunications services functional area. These companies have won spots on that portion: CACI International, General Dynamics IT, Leidos, Peraton and Science Applications International Corp.

Like KPMG, TekSnap alleges that the agency misevaluated its proposal and argues that the agency’s best-value selection decision was flawed.

KPMG filed its protest on June 2 and the Government Accountability Office's ruling is due Sept. 10. TekSnap filed on Tuesday with a GAO response expected by Sept. 18.

GAO may issue a single decision if the issues raised in the two protests are related.

Evolve consolidates 11 current contracts in a single vehicle. Some of the work areas include IT management, cloud and data center services, application development, network and telecommunications services, and customer support.