Gateway withdraws ADMC-2 protest

Gateway has withdrawn its protest concerning its exclusion from the Army’s 10-year, $5 billion Army Desktop and Mobile Computing-2 contract. The company had filed a grievance with the Government Accountability Office, effectively stopping all progress on ADMC-2.

ADMC-2, awarded in April, will be the Army’s primary source for commercial desktop and laptop computers, ruggedized and semiruggedized devices, printers and peripherals for the next decade. Gateway filed its protest in May and the contract’s implementation was suspended, pending a possible hearing and GAO’s judgment.

No information was immediately available as to why Gateway decided to end its objection. GAO had 100 days to issue its recommendation and that deadline was soon approaching. According to a GAO official, GAO agrees with the government on a vast majority of cases that reach the end of the protest period.

The protest withdrawal clears the main hurdle for moving forward with ADMC-2, according to Dean Sprague, spokesman for the Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems. PEO-EIS’ Army Small Computer Program administers the contract.

But the contract vehicle won’t be instantly usable. There is still room to order from the existing contracts and further clarifications for task orders are needed before ADMC-2 money can be spent, he said.

The Army Small Computer Program is currently in the middle of its third commodity buy period, during which customers can purchase items at significantly reduced prices. Army purchasers are required to use commodity buys to acquire products. Economies of scale enable the discounts.

This commodity period began Aug. 8 and closes at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The next commodity buy period will be in the February to March timeframe.

CDW Government, Dell and Hewlett-Packard won the large-business awards under ADMC-2. Integration Technologies Group, MPC-G, NCS Technologies, Telos, Transource Computer and Westwood Computer won the small-business portions.

ADMC-2 is follows the $300 million ADMC-1 contract held by Apptis, CDW-G, Dell, iGov, GTSI, Insight Public Sector, Intelligent Decisions and MPC-G.