The protester hired a former agency official to consult on its proposal. The COFC said this gave the protester an unfair advantage. The official was the former program officer for the predecessor contract. His involvement tainted the protester with an apparent conflict.
CACI, Inc.-Federal, v. United States, COFC No. 23-324C
- The Conflict – The Army excluded the protester from the competition. The protester had hired a former agency official to consult on the procurement. This official had been the Army’s program officer for the predecessor contract. The Army believed that hiring the consultant had given the protester an unfair competitive advantage.
- Due Process – The protester said the Army took too long to investigate the conflict and didn’t give the protester a meaningful opportunity to respond. The court wasn’t persuaded. The court found the Army had been immediately concerned about the protester’s hiring of a former official. What’s more, the protester was able to meaningfully respond to the Army’s determination. It filed a 15 page response to the Army, and it challenged its exclusion in a GAO protest.
- Decision to Exclude – The protester attempted to argue the exclusion decision was arbitrary. But the court found exclusion rational. The former official had access to non-pubic, proprietary information. He oversaw performance of the predecessor contract. He had access to the incumbent’s cost information and even performed a cost analysis on the incumbent contract. He approved task orders under the predecessor contract. He was part of the source selection board that evaluated the incumbent for the predecessor contract. As the court said, his involvement in the predecessor contract had a “certain aroma that was hard to purify.”
The protester is represented by Robert Kiel Tompkins, Gregory R. Hallmark, Hillary J. Freund, and Richard Ariel of Holland and Knight, LLP. The intervenor is represented by Noah Benjamin Bleicher, Nathaniel E. Castellano, Aime J. Joo, and Andrew L. Balland of Jenner and Block, LLP. The government is represented by Kyle Shane Beckrich, Michael McDermott, Dana J. Chase, and Major James S. Kim of the Department of Justice.
–Case summary by Craig LaChance, Senior Editor
