Groundswell’s protest of the Army Enterprise Business Systems – Convergence contract falls short as U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge denies allegations. Accenture Federal Services has prevailed in its battle with Groundswell over the Army Enterprise Business Systems- Convergence contract.
The Army picked Accenture last year for the project to consolidate several Army systems into a single platform built on SAP. The project could be worth $1 billion over eight years.
Groundswell went to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in October raising a series of allegations including that the Army favored Accenture and changed the parameters of the evaluation while the competition was under way.
The company claimed that the Army never gave them a full answer on why they picked Accenture over them.
The Army and Accenture denied Groundswell’s allegations.
The Army competed the contract under an Other Transaction Authority process. The competition had multiple steps that each company competed under before moving onto the next step. With Step Seven, Accenture won the contract.
In his ruling, Judge Richard Hertling denied Groundswell’s motion for judgement on the administrative record of the competition, denying the company’s allegations.
The Army and Accenture filed motions to dismiss and here the judge granted some parts and denied other parts. The judge also dismissed two counts saying that he didn’t think the court had jurisdiction.
Hertling has not released his written opinion yet and has given Accenture, the Army and Groundswell until May 30 to file a redacted version that the court can release publicly.
Unanswered for now are what specifically the judge granted and denied in the Army and Accenture’s motions.
For example, the Army and Accenture argued that the judge should dismiss the case because in their view an OTA cannot be protested. They also argued that Groundswell’s protest claims were untimely.
These two arguments were counts one and two in the Army and Accenture’s filing. In his one-page ruling, Hertling said these two counts were “granted in part,” leaving unclear which parts of these counts were granted and where were denied.
What Hertling specifically says about these two parts will get to the heart of whether an OTA can be protested. We won’t have any details on his ruling until the judge releases his opinion later this month.
That part of the ruling could have implications behind this single contract.
Accenture declined to comment for this story. The Army didn’t respond to a request for comment.
A Groundswell spokesman said, “We respect the government’s decision and remain committed to supporting defense modernization wherever we’re called to service.”
The company filed its protest “only to seek clarity on the process, the basis for award, and to ensure our approach and solution was evaluated fairly,” the spokesman said. “It has never been our intent to delay or disrupt the mission.”
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