Leidos Inc.

B-417994 Dec 17, 2019 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Leidos, Inc., of Reston, Virginia, protests the elimination for consideration for award of the proposal it submitted in response to Fair Opportunity Proposal Request (FOPR) No. FA8726-19-F-0096, issued by the Department of the Air Force for the Common Computing Environment (CCE) Cloud follow-on award. Leidos asserts that the Air Force unreasonably determined that it was nonresponsible, and ineligible for award, because of impaired objectivity and unequal access to information organizational conflicts of interest (OCI) created by its proposed subcontractor (Subcontractor A). We deny the protest. View Decision DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This redacted version has been approved for public release. Decision Matter of:  Leidos, Inc. File:  B-417994 Date:  December 17, 2019 Paul F. Khoury, Esq., and J. Ryan Frazee, Esq., Wiley Rein LLP, for the protester. Anne B. Perry, Esq., Townsend L. Bourne, Esq., and Keeley McCarty, Esq., Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, for Science Applications International Corporation, the intervenor. Colonel Patricia S. Wiegman-Lenz,  Lietenant Colonel John C. Degnan, Lawrence M. Anderson, Esq., Sean M. Hannaway, Esq., Amy E. Bryan, Esq. and Major Douglas M. Arnett, Department of the Air Force, for the agency. Mary G. Curcio, Esq., and Laura Eyester, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest challenging exclusion of protester from procurement is denied where contracting officer reasonably determined that proposed subcontractor’s responsibility as a subcontractor under a program related to the procurement created a potential impaired objectivity organizational conflict of interest that was not mitigated by firewall or proposed recusal. DECISION Leidos, Inc., of Reston, Virginia, protests the elimination for consideration for award of the proposal it submitted in response to Fair Opportunity Proposal Request (FOPR) No. FA8726-19-F-0096, issued by the Department of the Air Force for the Common Computing Environment (CCE) Cloud follow-on award.[1]  Leidos asserts that the Air Force unreasonably determined that it was nonresponsible, and ineligible for award, because of impaired objectivity and unequal access to information organizational conflicts of interest (OCI) created by its proposed subcontractor (Subcontractor A). We deny the protest. BACKGROUND Air Force Programs The Air Force is embarking on a fundamental digital transformation of the Department of Defense (DOD) Information Technology (IT) enterprise with respect to how the Air Force acquires IT and how enterprise IT enables core missions and the use of data as a strategic asset.  COS/MOL at 2; Agency Report (AR), Tab 36, Decl. of Program Manager for Acquisition and Resourcing on Enterprise Information as a Service (EITaaS), at 1.  The Air Force Enterprise IT and Cyber Infrastructure Division (HNI) is responsible for this mission.  Agency Response to GAO, Nov. 18, 2019, at 2.  HNI is subdivided into divisions including:  CCE, Technology and Strategic Planning (HNIX), and Enterprise IT as a Service (HNIT).  Id., attach. 2, Organizational Slides. HNIX is responsible for strategic planning for HNI, and seeks to create a master HNI brand and find efficiencies and highlight critical need areas and opportunities to ensure that the Air Force is not left behind in adoption and leverage of current mainstream technologies.  Protest at 5; Agency Response to GAO, Nov. 18, 2019, at 2.  HNIX receives support through an advisory and assistance services (A&AS) contract.  Id.  Subcontractor A is a subcontractor on the A&AS contract and provides support to HNIX under that contract.  Id. The EITaaS program, under HNIT, is an experimental program that is currently focused on the agency’s risk reduction effort (RRE).  COS/MOL at 3.  The EITaaS RRE leverages best practices from commercial industry to provide standardized, innovative, and agile IT services to the Air Force.  Id. at 4.  This includes providing protect, connect, storage, computing, hardware, software, common IT services, commodities, and hosting of enterprise mission and business systems.  Id.  EITaaS is an overarching strategic initiative to transform the entire Air Force network, and all of its existing programs, including the CCE program.  Id. at 3-4; Tab 36, Decl.