A lengthy and complex ruling released Friday by U.S. Court of Federal Claims Senior Judge Eric Bruggink clears the legal roadblocks for the Pentagon to award its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract in late August.
The full filing comes two weeks after the judge announced his decision in favor of the defendant Pentagon over bidding tech firm and plaintiff Oracle because the tech firm could not meet certain gate criteria when bids were due in late 2018. It indicates the judge actually sided with both parties in various claims.
In one instance, Bruggink found the Defense Department violated a 2008 law requiring indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts be awarded to multiple bidders if the ceiling value exceeded $112 million. JEDI, with a potential total ceiling value of $10 billion over 10 years if all options are exercised, met that criteria, and the judge found the exemption the Pentagon used was improper.
However, in another instance, the judge sided with the Pentagon’s use another Federal
Acquisition Regulation subsection that mandates the government use single-award contracts if certain criteria are met. The judge agreed with the Pentagon’s justification of a single-award contract would produce “more favorable terms and conditions, including pricing,” and simpler contract administration.
The judge acknowledged the seemingly contradictory nature of the rulings, calling them “in tension” with one another and offered an explanation.
“This peculiar state of affairs is an artifact of a code section which is a mixture, rather than an alloy, of various pieces of legislation. Not surprisingly, the parties have different views about the implications of this possible result,” the judge said.
In a statement to reporters, the Pentagon said ..
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