USDA reopens Networx competition in response to protest

In response to a protest filed by the losing bidders, the Agriculture Department has reopened its competition to find a vendor for its telecommunications services under the Networx program.

USDA canceled its delivery orders with AT&T and started the process to re-solicit bids, according to the Government Accountability Office. The other two vendors on the Networx Universal contract, Qwest Communications and Verizon, filed a protest on Oct. 13.

Networx is the government's largest telecommunications program, worth $68.2 billion over 10 years. The contract is divided between the $48.1 billion Networx Universal contract and the $20.1 billion Networx Enterprise vehicle, which includes the three Universal vendors plus Sprint and Level 3 Communications. Networx is replacing the FTS 2001 contract, which has expired.

AT&T was USDA's telecom services provider under FTS 2001, leading the agency to select the company as its Networx provider earlier this year. Qwest and Verizon alleged in their protest that the agency had violated the government's fair opportunity requirement for task orders of more than $5 million, said Mike Golden, GAO's managing associate general counsel for procurement law.

GAO dismissed the protest after Agriculture agreed to reopen the bidding process. "[USDA] just said they would re-solicit using fair opportunity procedures, but I don't know the details," said Golden. "It in effect makes the protest academic."

In response to a request for comment, an agency spokesperson e-mailed the following statement: "USDA is reassessing the requirement for the Networx program.No details will be available until the internal assessment is completed," and referred Government Executive to GAO for comment.

At least one observer thinks the vast amount of services offered through Networx vehicles could have affected the process. Agencies can award task orders based on the prices listed in the basic contract, but doing so limits them to purchasing telecom services individually rather than as a cohesive package, according to Warren Suss, president of Suss Consulting, which specializes in federal IT.

"For a large, complex agency like Agriculture, this proved to be a big challenge," he said. "What they're doing now by going out with a formal competition that allows bidders to tailor their solutions. It gives [vendors] more flexibility to tailor unique solutions to their unique requirements."

Suss said the complexity of the offerings on Networx make it critical for agencies to spend ample time preparing their network requirements.

"I believe what they were doing was trying to use a process that didn't really fit with the more complex network requirements," he said. "Agriculture's process was a stretch-to be able to just buy a network by picking one from column A, one from column B. They need more of a tailored solution."