SSA: Digital recording on track

A successful bid protest against the Social Security Administration will not set back the agency's schedule for installing 1,470 portable digital recording systems in its hearing and appeals offices, SSA officials said.

The digital recording systems are an important component of the agency's network of disability claims processing systems, which SSA is now installing nationwide.

In April, the Comptroller General's Office asked SSA officials to cancel a contract the agency had awarded and to solicit new bids for the recording systems after it found that SSA had improperly selected a supplier for some of the recording system components.

CourtSmart Digital Systems Inc. successfully protested SSA's award to York Telecom Corp., after claiming that the York systems were not Section 508 compliant and were not available on a Federal Supply Schedule contract. Both were requirements of the request for proposals.

SSA most likely will have to pay CourtSmart's filing costs and attorneys' fees, according to the decision released on April 16. "SSA just received CourtSmart's cost claim and is looking at it to determine whether or not the costs are reasonable," an agency spokesman said.