ODNI told to redo financial management contract

The Government Accountability Office has told the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to re-evaluate proposals for a contract to provide financial advisory services across the intelligence community.

ODNI awarded the contract to KPMG in April, but competitor Guidehouse responded with a protest that challenged several aspects of the evaluation.

The April source selection followed an earlier attempt to award the contract to KPMG in 2023. Guidehouse also protested that award, which resulted in a revised solicitation and new proposals.

The contract is part of an effort by ODNI to get better insights into how it manages the intelligence community's budget.

ODNI is the funding source for national-level intelligence activities. ODNI’s chief financial officer also serves as the CFO for intelligence community.

ODNI wants to improve financial management processes and capabilities for its audit and management functions, as well as meet reporting requirements to Congress and the Office of Management and Budget.

Bidders were evaluated on their technical proposals, management plan, past performance, security and price. Cost was the least important factor.

KPMG received ratings of Exceptional for technical, Very Good for management, Significant for past performance, and Pass for security. It quoted a price of $53 million, according to the GAO decision unsealed Thursday.

Guidehouse received lower ratings across the board – Very Good for technical, Acceptable for management, Moderate for past performance, and Pass for security. Guidehouse proposed a price of $29.4 million.

Those different ratings are what Guidehouse attacked in its protest. The company argued that ODNI didn’t penalize KPMG for departing from the solicitation’s requirements. Guidehouse also claimed it wasn't properly credited for strengths in its proposal.

ODNI also assigned a weakness to Guidehouse’s proposed program manager.

GAO found that ODNI’s evaluation was not consistent with the solicitation, particularly with the staffing plan and how the proposed program manager was evaluated.

The decision criticizes ODNI for not documenting its decisions sufficiently during the evaluation phase. ODNI may have explained some of its reasoning during the protest phase, but that is too late in the process.

“When an agency’s post-protest defense of its evaluation is not supported by the contemporaneous record such explanations are unpersuasive and will be afforded little weight,” GAO wrote.

GAO is not asking ODNI to rework the solicitation, but to re-evaluate proposals and make a new award decision. The process could take several months before a new award is made.