US Accountability Office Urges US Air Force to Re-Bid Tanker Contract
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today sustained the Boeing Company’s protest of the Department of the Air Force’s award of a contract to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation for KC-X aerial refueling tankers. Boeing challenged the Air Force’s technical and cost evaluations, conduct of discussions, and source selection decision. The GAO recommended that the Air Force reopen discussions with the offerors, obtain revised proposals, re-evaluate the revised proposals, and make a new source selection decision, consistent with the GAO’s decision.
The agency also made a number of other recommendations including that, if the Air Force believed that the solicitation, as reasonably interpreted, does not adequately state its needs, the Air Force should amend the solicitation prior to conducting further discussions with the offerors; that if Boeing’s proposal is ultimately selected for award, the Air Force should terminate the contract awarded to Northrop Grumman; and that the Air Force reimburse Boeing the costs of filing and pursuing the protest, including reasonable attorneys’ fees.
By statute, the Air Force is given 60 days to inform the GAO of the Air Force’s actions in response to GAO’s recommendations.
Air Force officials release a statement that says the service is reviewing the GAO’s decision that sustained portions of Boeing’s protest, and that once the review is complete, the Air Force will be in a position to determine the best course of action.
Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said during a news conference yesterday that Pentagon officials still fully support the Air Force choice, and that the process must move forward. “This is the No. 1 acquisition priority of the Air Force,” Morrell said. “It has to be. It is 10 years overdue.”
The average age of the KC-135 tanker fleet is 47 years old. “Any further delay would be a real problem,” Morrell said.
The Air Force does not have to accept the GAO finding.
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