Qwest turned to General Accounting Office (GAO) for relief last w...

recent extension contracts awarded to AT&T and Sprint, incumbent bidders for original FTS 2000. Qwest had filed challenge at GSA in Dec. (CD Dec 18 p2), contending sole-source interim contracts carried rates that on average were 25% higher than those for original FTS 2000 contract and that GSA should have bid work competitively. Interim contracts were awarded in Dec. after GSA missed target for shifting federal agency telecom traffic to FTS 2001 awarded to Sprint and WorldCom from old FTS 2000. Qwest raised same concerns with GAO last week as it did in GSA agency protest. Agency protest official Donald Suda said GSA decision not to seek competitive bids for interim contract was business judgment, upholding GSA decision. Qwest told GAO its protest was based on contentions that: (1) GSA violated procedural mandates of Competition in Contract Act (CICA) and Federal Acquisition Regulation. Qwest argued GSA didn’t prepare justification document for deciding not to seek competitive bids until after contracts were awarded. (2) Agency couldn’t justify sole-source awards on basis of “unusual and compelling urgency” because it knew for at least 4 months beforehand that more service coverage under FTS 2000 would need to be awarded. “Yet it failed to conduct any planning for such a procurement,” Qwest said. (3) GSA failed to demonstrate prices in bridge contract extensions were fair and reasonable. Because CICA requires this demonstration, GSA’s action “renders the bridge contracts voidable.” In particular, Qwest took aim at GSA arguments that company couldn’t provide national long distance service under federal telecom contract because it didn’t yet have FCC approval to provide interLATA services in former U S West region. “GSA’s position misses the central point: Qwest is permitted to team with a long distance provider capable of providing service in Qwest’s ‘in-region’ territory and thus submit a proposal fully responsive to GSA’s requirements,” Qwest told GAO. Qwest Govt. Systems Div. Senior Vp James Payne said Fri. company disputed GSA’s characterization of company’s compliance with Sec. 271. Teaming arrangement could have been made with contract partner for states in which long distance approval hadn’t been received yet, he said. “To say that ‘you are not allowed to provide services in all 50 states,’ that is going way beyond the rules of the FCC,” Payne said. “It’s bad policy.” GSA wasn’t available for comment.