GAO Rejects Protests Of TSA Farming Out $1.2B in Contracts

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has rejected two protests against the U.S. Transportation Security Administration's outsourcing of human resources services to Lockheed Martin.

Both American Federation of Government Employees President John Gage and Carahsoft Technologies and Avue Technologies filed protests against the $1.2 billion contract, with the two firms saying that the agency improperly altered the procurement process.

On Aug. 7, GAO General Counsel Gary L. Kepplinger said in a written decision regarding the petition filed by the two companies that "our protest jurisdiction does not extend to Carahsoft/Avue's protest which challenges TSA's contract."

Mr. Kepplinger wrote in an Aug. 4 decision on the AFGE protest that, "In pursuing this matter, Gage complains that, in addition to engaging in a direct conversion of activities performed by Federal employees, TSA intends to improperly increase the scope of services Lockheed will perform beyond the services contemplated by the solicitation, specifically to include performance of human resource services at DHS headquarters," but that this protest, as well, was outside the GAO's jurisdiction.

AFGE and the National Treasury Employees Union, both of which represent TSA screeners, had said that the move to outsource to Lockheed was a depletion of the Federal workforce and a poor use of tax money.