DHS PACTS III Awards Forthcoming After Protests Dismissed

DHS PACTS III Awards Forthcoming After Protests Dismissed

7/12/24

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has opened up the ability for PACTS III awards by dismissing a series of protests against the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) solicitation. DHS issued separate solicitations for each functional area of the potential $8.4 billion professional services contract reserved for small businesses. The first functional area focuses on management consulting, while functional area two covers office administrative services, and the third pertains to engineering services.

Department of Homeland Security seal. mehaniq41 – stock.adobe.com

Team Escalate LLC filed protests against each functional area, disputing the evaluation procedure for joint ventures (JVs) and small business set-asides. The GAO dismissed these protests, citing insufficient evidence of DHS violating procurement rules. Competitive Innovations LLC also had claims denied by GAO. They alleged that DHS unfairly favored “HUBZone-plus companies” by granting them advantages in past performance evaluation due to their additional small business certifications. GAO ruled that the solicitation does not display any such inclination, thereby finding no breach of regulations.

Competitive Innovations further objected to DHS allowing 8(a) firms to leverage contracts won under a rebuttable presumption of social disadvantage for their 8(a) status. GAO declined to address this aspect of their protest, indicating it as a matter for the courts rather than their office. The outcome now hinges on Competitive Innovations’ potential decision to pursue legal action depending on DHS’s award decisions for PACTS III.

The Program Management, Administrative, Operations (Clerical), and Technical Services program, aka PACTS III, is the third iteration of the multiple-award contact (MAC) IDIQ for non-IT services utilized by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It is specifically targeted for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB), Women-owned Small Business (WOSB), HUBZone, and 8(a) set-aside companies. It is under the 541611 and 561110 NAICS codes and the value ceiling is $8.4 billion over (up to) 10 years.

The major winners so far for PACTS II are Information Technology Coalition, Sciolex, and Tech Op Solutions. Between the three of them, they have been awarded over half of the approximately $1.3B in obligated dollars.

If you’d like to learn more about PACTS II awardees and the associated task orders, or any large federal acquisition vehicle, get started with a 5-day trial of EZGovOpps and check out our Task Order Database Management System.