Conflict-of-interest protest clouds NASA Earth sciences contract

NASA is taking a second look at its award decision involving an $85 million small business contract to support Earth science work.

The Global Modeling and Assimilation Support contract went to Adnet Systems in late January.

Following the announcement, Science Systems and Applications Inc. filed a protest on Feb. 9 at the Government Accountability Office with claims of a personal conflict-of-interest involving the source selection board chairperson. 

SSAI also claimed that there were biased ground rules and unequal access to information conflict of interest. The company challenged the evaluation of its proposal as well.

After reviewing the protest, NASA decided it would pull back the award and investigate the conflict-of-interest allegations. The agency will take any other corrective action that it decides is necessary.

The GLOMAS contract meets several NASA requirements around using satellite data to study changes in the physics, chemistry and biology of Earth systems. GLOMAS supports research-and-development work involving the atmosphere, ocean, land surfaces and cryosphere.