A contract to outsource the management of all military moves to a single company has been pulled back for review by U.S. Transportation Command, officials confirmed to Military.com on Wednesday.
The $7.2 billion, three-year contract was awarded April 30 to American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier Group Inc. (ARC), based in Parsippany, New Jersey. Originally set to begin last month, the contract shifted responsibility to ARC for the management of worldwide household goods shipments by 2022, starting with a nine-month IT and system handoff.
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But instead, TRANSCOM on June 9 notified the Government Accountability Office of a request to take corrective action on the contract, a decision first reported by Military Times. The GAO oversees government contract protests and disputes.
"An interested party has presented U.S. TRANSCOM with information that they believe should have been considered in the Global Household Goods Contract award decision. U.S. TRANSCOM intends to take corrective action to consider this new information, gather facts and conduct a review of the award," a TRANSCOM official said in a statement.
If the request to GAO is approved "USTRANSCOM will review the entire evaluation record, to include reviewing the reported allegations along with gathering additional facts. We anticipate the corrective action to be complete in the coming weeks," they said.
Officials with ARC said they expect TRANSCOM to deliver a new contract decision.
"The United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) has decided to take corrective action in response to protests of the contract awarded under Solicitation No. HTC711-19-R-R004," ARC spokesman Charles Diorio said in a statement to Military.com.
“Corrective action occurs in a substantial number of GAO protests where an agency determines that it would like to address potential issues in the record or raised by the protests. USTRANSCOM will re-evaluate proposals and render a new award decision."
The contract had already been delayed at least 100 days as the GAO worked to review contract protests filed late last month by two companies that had lost the award, Home Safe Alliance LLC and Connected Global Solutions LLC.
"This is a standard process available through the U.S. Government Accountability Office to ensure TRANSCOM followed the terms of the solicitation and applicable acquisition regulations," Diorio said of the protests in a news release posted to ARC's website May 28. "With large government contracts, it is not unexpected that unsuccessful bidders protest the award. We have no reason to believe that the protest process will change the ultimate outcome of the award."
The ARC contract award is the first time the Pentagon has outsourced household goods and delivery system management.
Personal vehicle shipments are already outsourced to a private contractor, International Auto Logistics (IAL). But that 2014 contract sparked both public outcry and congressional scrutiny when service members reported their cars had been damaged or gone undelivered. About 70% of the vehicles IAL was tasked with shipping over 2014's peak moving system were considered late, according to TRANSCOM officials.
-- Amy Bushatz can be reached at amy.bushatz@military.com.
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