NGA re-awards $940M Clover contract following protest battle

After weathering several protests tied to registration technicalities, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has again awarded five companies seats on its $940 million Clover procurement.

NGA uses Clover to buy acquisition support services from small businesses such as acquisition management, financial management and strategic business management. Clover is the replacement contract for Emerald.

The agency made five awards in May 2023, but several protests claimed that some of those winners should have been disqualified because their Sam.gov registration had not been continuously active from when proposals were submitted until the awards.

NGA took a corrective action by issuing a deviation to the Federal Acquisition Regulation requirement on Sam.gov registration. Zolon PCS II LLC objected and filed a protest with U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

The court ruled the deviation was “arbitrary and capricious.” NGA did not have the authority to change what the court said was a mandatory requirement.

According to the law firm Bass Berry Sims, this case is one of several that addressed whether an active Sam.gov registration is required throughout a procurement. Those cases all stemmed from confusion over a 2018 amendment to the FAR.

In August, a final rule was issued to try and clarify the requirement. While the rule eliminates the strict “continuous registration” interpretation, bidders must still ensure active registration at time of proposal submission and at time of award. (See this article.)

With the court’s ruling, NGA moved ahead and named five winners for Clover on Friday:

• Compass
• Exacta Solutions
• Innovate Now
• Logic Gate
• ProCleared

Compass, Exacta, Innovate Now and Logic Gate all won seats on the the contract in 2023. Credence Dynamo Solutions did not retain its position from 2023 and was replaced on the list by Compass.