Judge halts new Polaris awards over GSA’s ‘unequal treatment’ of bidders
Gettyimages.com/ John M. Chase
By
Nick Wakeman
Two protesters win their arguments as the court orders the General Services Administration to fix errors before moving forward with the vehicle.
A federal judge apparently has found serious mistakes on the part of the General Services Administration and how it has managed its Polaris small business contract.
In a sealed Sept. 10 ruling, Judge Thompson M. Dietz of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims blocked GSA from making more awards under Polaris governmentwide IT contract until the errors are fixed.
The agency so far has made more than 100 awards in different batches, starting with the initial set of 102 awards in January 2025. That set of awards set off protests by six companies who went to the courts later that same month.
Dietz's ruling means protests by OM Partners and DevTech were successful. But the judge denied another set of protests from Assyst, GenceTek, BLJV and Rigil.
The judge also granted in part and denied in part GSA’s cross-motion for judgement.
The crux of the dispute is that GSA treated bidders unequally. For example, OM Partners says GSA did not allow it to fix a clerical error in a submission but allowed another bidder (unnamed) to fix the same kind of error. The unnamed company apparently won a spot on Polaris.
While the document outlining the judge’s findings against GSA is still sealed, Dietz’s one-page judgement says that GSA cannot make awards until the agency addresses “the prejudicial errors” described in the sealed opinion.
The original 102 awards that set off the protests were in the general small business category. GSA has since made rounds of awards in the service-disabled/veteran-owned, woman-owned and HUBzone small business categories.