EDS, an information technology services firm, has filed a bid protest against the Defense Department's $263.7 million Defense Travel System contract award.
The winner of the travel system contract, BDM International, a subsidiary of TRW, must stop work on the system until the General Accounting Office rules on the protest, which was filed last week.
EDS spokesman Randolph Dove said the EDS bid for the contract had higher up-front costs than the BDM bid, but over the long run would have saved DoD hundreds of millions of dollars.
"When the government procures services, is it really looking for lowest cost, or for the best value overall?" Dove said.
DoD awarded the lucrative Defense Travel System contract to BDM in early May. Under the contract, BDM will build an automated travel services system for the department. DoD travelers will be able to use the system to book travel arrangements, get approval for expenses, look up travel regulations and file for reimbursements--a start-to-stop travel administration system.
Initially, the contract award is for Defense Travel Region 6, which includes 11 midwestern states and covers about 200,000 DoD travelers. By 2001, the travel system will be used throughout the world, the Pentagon predicts.
A DoD spokeswoman said bid protests on large-scale procurements are common.
EDS' Dove said the protest is serious.
"We don't file protests lightly," Dove said. "We don't do it very often."
Though BDM cannot do any work on the system during the protest process because the government would incur financial liabilities if the company did, the government can continue working on the system during the protest period.
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