New round of DREN protests filed

GAO's Global Crossing decision

The troubled history of the Defense Department's $450 million contract for a high-speed network for researchers has run up against yet another hurdle.

Two of the losing vendors have again filed protests with the General Accounting Office objecting to the Defense Information Systems Agency's award to WorldCom Inc. in light of the telecom giant's financial troubles.

Sprint filed a protest with GAO July 3, and Global Crossing Ltd. followed July 5.

A Sprint spokesman said that the protest has been sealed and he could not talk about the details. However the protests are likely questioning WorldCom's accounting practices.

DISA selected WorldCom as the follow-on vendor for the Defense Research Engineering Network for scientists and researchers. WorldCom officials have admitted to improperly accounting for billions of dollars in expenses.

That news came just days after GAO had rejected Global Crossing's earlier DREN protest. DISA had removed the company from competition because of its financial troubles.According to a Global Crossing statement, however, the company is recovering. "Having completed most of our restructuring activities, we are well on our way to completing a successful reorganization. At the same time, we have met all of our financial targets, continued to serve approximately 85,000 customers, signed up new customers, and even improved network performance," Global Crossing said in a statement.

Sprint and AT&T also had filed an earlier protest, but withdrew them before GAO issued a decision.