GSA changes strategy for identification card contracts
In an attempt to achieve more competitive pricing, GSA opens up its contract for end-to-end card services to its schedules program.
The General Services Administration has decided not to exercise the remaining options of a five-year, $104 million contract with BearingPoint for end-to-end identification card services, government and private sector sources said Tuesday.
Three days after the company helped agencies using a GSA shared service center meet the Bush administration's Oct. 27 deadline for issuing standardized, high-tech identity cards, as required by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, GSA officials told BearingPoint they planned to change course.
According to a government official speaking on the condition of anonymity, GSA determined agencies could select from among multiple, qualified companies for end-to-end ID card services. When GSA awarded BearingPoint the initial contract in August, there were not enough companies qualified as end-to-end service providers to meet the government's needs, the official said.
Now GSA will offer contracts for ID card services through its schedules program. GSA schedules provide lists of contracts available for use governmentwide. As of Friday, 38 agencies had signed up for GSA's help in meeting the HSPD 12 mandate. About 15 companies can provide end-to-end identity card services compliant with the presidential directive, the government source said.
BearingPoint will continue to work on the HSPD 12 contract until Jan. 7, and will ultimately issue 6,500 cards in the four cities where GSA established enrollment stations, the source said. Agencies signed up under the GSA shared service plan paid $110 for each card issued and will pay $52 for annual maintenance.
The Interior Department's National Business Center, which runs a competing shared service center, is charging agencies $120 for each card issued, which includes the first year's maintenance costs. NBC's card services are being implemented by IBM and Lockheed Martin Corp.
Steve Lunceford, a spokesman for BearingPoint, said GSA officials thanked BearingPoint Monday night for helping them meet the Oct. 27 deadline, but said they believed that the market has changed and it is not in the government's best interest to continue the contract.
"We feel very privileged to be able to help our clients meet the deadline," Lunceford said. "We look forward to working with the agency moving forward."
Lunceford strongly denied allegations that the contract was not continued because of performance issues.
"We met the mandate. We had success," Lunceford said.
Soon after awarding the BearingPoint contract, GSA was forced to issue a stop work order for 11 days after three companies filed bid protests.
Kevin Kozlowski, vice president of government initiatives for Xtec Inc., a Miami-based security company that filed one of the protests with the Government Accountability Office, said he is concerned about how companies will be able to compete fairly for schedule contracts after GSA spent months promoting the BearingPoint contract.
Brad Bass, a spokesman for Electronic Data Systems Corp., which also filed a protest with GAO, said the announcement is good news.
"We support GSA's action to terminate the current contract for HSPD 12 shared services and to provide these products and services to federal agencies in a fair and competitive manner," Bass said.
Lockheed Martin Corp., the third company that protested the BearingPoint contract, declined to comment.
The government source said GSA's decision to discontinue the BearingPoint contract was unrelated to the bid protests.