Palantir challenges DIA's sole-source contract plan

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The company argues federal acquisition laws require the Defense Intelligence Agency conduct a competition, echoing the 2016 court win involving an Army contract.
History might be repeating itself as Palantir is objecting to the Defense Intelligence Agency’s plan to award a sole-source contract for custom software development.
Like a legal battle Palantir won nearly a decade ago, the company is alleging in a protest filed Monday that DIA is violating federal law and regulations that require the government to use commercial software whenever available.
Palantir won that argument with the Army after going to court in 2016 and used the victory to jump-start its federal business, The company filed its DIA protest with the Government Accountability Office.
The DIA case involves Prometheus, a program that began as a Small Business Innovation Research project for specialized intelligence data analysis software. DIA now wants to move SBIR into a contract to allow further research-and-development, according to a June 18 Sam.gov notice
DIA said that it cannot run a competition because it does not have the software rights or documentation that the agency can share with a group of competitors.
Neither the value of the work nor the SBIR grant holder has been disclosed.
Palantir is arguing DIA does not need to go down the sole-source and custom development route because commercial software is available. The company says DIA would have discovered that if it had conducted adequate market research.
The company also argues that DIA's current approach violates the Competition in Contracting Act and Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, which emphasize a preference for commercial products.
Palantir first raised those arguments with GAO regarding the Army’s Distributed Common Ground System in 2016.
At that time, GAO ruled the Army had the discretion to choose its acquisition strategy. Palantir then went to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, where it won its case.
The Army then changed its approach to use commercial software and Palantir went on to win work under the contract.
GAO could use that Court of Federal Claims ruling as research, but the DIA contract is significantly different because it is coming from a SBIR.
We will find out by Oct. 8, when GAO's ruling is due.