The winning AT&T bid for a $3.3 billion classified NSA contract was more expensive, according to redacted legal documents published by GAO this week.
AT&T bid $2.55 billion on a coveted contract to “technically evolve” the National Security Agency’s IT environment, which is an initiative to provide enterprise information technology (IT) services to NSA/CSS and affiliate locations worldwide. DXC Technology bid $1.79 billion.
The previously redacted legal documents have shed some light on other factors that led to a bid protest been awarded in AT&T’s favor in January.
The bid protest was over Regional Infrastructure Services I, a component in the Greenway program, which is an initiative to provide enterprise information technology services to NSA/CSS and affiliate locations worldwide. The RIS components provide services more localized and physical in nature and provisioned at specific zones throughout the world.
Although the AT&T bid was more expensive, GAO documentation indicates that it met more than minimal requirements in eight key factors, including technical services, enterprise management services, program management and integration, while DXC only met minimum acceptable standards in the eight requirements.
“It is beyond dispute that AT&T’s proposal was considered by the agency to be superior in nearly every aspect,” says the documentation.