Following AT&T’s victory in the recent $928m AFCAC-251 small computer multi-user contract from the US Air Force, Honeywell Federal Systems has, as reported briefly, protested to the General Services Administration’s Board of Contract Appeals over the award. Honeywell claims that its technically qualified proposal to the Air Force would have resulted in a 20% cut in costs over AT&T’s solution, reports Electronics News, and says that the AT&T bid was rated as the highest technical proposal only because the phone giant was allowed to propose higher-priced equipment, exceeding specifications listed in the original request for proposal – which was later secretly changed to reflect this, according to Honeywell. Honeywell also protested against the government’s failure to act on the recent Services Administration directive which, although allowing the mandatory specification of Unix System V, also specified the elimination of an inherent bias ensuing from the use of AT&T software. Other losing bidders, including Lockheed Corp (offering Counterpoint systems), Zenith Data Systems, and IBM, have attended de-briefing sessions on the contract, but have not yet said they will be filing protests.
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