A string of recent decisions have found the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) struggling with the impact of corporate transactions on pending proposals.
- FCi Federal, Inc., B-408558.7, B-408558.8, Aug. 5, 2015, 2015 CPD ¶ 245 (overturning award where “as a result of the sale . . . the original proposal, upon which the award decision was based, no longer reflects the intended approach to performance”).
- Wyle Labs., Inc., B-408112.2, Dec. 27, 2013, 2014 CPD ¶ 16 (overturning award where the awardee had recently engaged in a corporate reorganization).
- IBM U.S. Federal, B-409806 et al., Aug. 15, 2014, 2014 CPD ¶ 241 (noting that a corporate reorganization did not appear “to have any significant cost or technical impact on performance of the requirements”).
These decisions have led to significant uncertainty as to what best practices should be adopted by contractors in significant transactions.
Continuing this confusion is yet another case where an apparently successful offeror has lost its contract because of a transaction. Last week, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) rescinded the award of a nearly $5 billion contract to a Lockheed Martin company—Nevada Site Science Support and Technologies Corporation (NVS3T)—after learning that the company had been sold to Leidos Innovations Corporation after submission of the bid.
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Novations are the government contracting equivalent of a merger and acquisition (M&A) in the private sector – the process through which a government contract can be transferred from one business to another (without violating the 