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Statement Regarding Protest of General Dynamics Land Systems

The following is a statement from Kenneth E. Patton, Managing Associate General Counsel for Procurement Law at GAO, regarding today’s decision resolving a protest filed by General Dynamics Land Systems, B-412525, B-412525.2, March 15, 2016.

On March 15, 2016, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied a protest filed by General Dynamics Land Systems, of Sterling Heights, Michigan, challenging the award of a contract by the U.S. Marine Corps, to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), of McLean, Virginia for the first phase of a two-step procurement for the development of the Marine Corps’ amphibious combat vehicle.  The total value of the contract with all options exercised is approximately $1.2 billion. 

As explained in our decision, General Dynamics challenged, among other things, the Marine Corps’ evaluation of the company’s proposal and the agency’s decision in this best value procurement to select SAIC’s higher-rated, higher-priced proposal over the lower-rated, lower-priced proposal submitted by General Dynamics.  GAO concluded that the Marine Corps’ evaluation of the General Dynamics proposal was reasonable and consistent with the evaluation scheme identified in the solicitation.  GAO also concluded that the decision to select SAIC’s higher-rated, but higher-priced proposal was within the agency’s discretion when conducting a best value procurement. 

Because this protest decision contains proprietary and source selection sensitive information, release of the decision, at this point, is limited to Marine Corps personnel and to outside counsel who have been admitted under the GAO protective order issued for these protests.  The parties have been directed to submit proposed redactions for the purpose of preparing a public version of the decision.  GAO expects to publish a public version of the decision as soon as possible; however, the release of a public decision may take a few weeks.  When the public version of the decision is available, it will be posted to our website, www.gao.gov.

For more information, please contact Kenneth E. Patton at 202-512-8205, Ralph O. White at 202-512-8278, or Jennifer Ashley at 202-512-4490.  More information about GAO’s Bid Protest process is also available on the GAO website.

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