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A $1 billion telecommunications contract won by AT&T last December has been canceled by the U.S. Treasury Department after protests from other bidders were reviewed and sustained by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The cancellation was announced by David A. Grant, director of the office of procurement in the Treasury Department, in a May 20 letter to Anthony H. Gamboa, general counsel of the GAO. The terse, two-paragraph letter stated that in connection with the protests reviewed by the GAO, the contract with AT&T would be terminated. Instead, the Treasury Department will use existing General Services Administration (GSA) programs to meet its communications requirements, Grant wrote.
A Treasury spokesman who asked not to be identified said Thursday that the agency will use the GSA acquisition process "to acquire those services from the appropriate sources within the GSA framework of telecommunication contracts."
In a statement, AT&T said it intends to remain "focused on how we can best meet the Treasury Department's needs for a modern, cost-effective network. With that in mind, we'll be awaiting further word on how it plans to proceed with this acquisition. We'll do what it takes to win this business again."
AT&T won the three-year Treasury Communications Enterprise deal last December, but other bidders protested the award in March. Details about what prompted those protests were not immediately available.
The three-year contract had seven one-year options, with an ultimate value as high as $1 billion.
The five bidders who protested the award were Broadwing Communications, Level 3, MCI, Northrup Grumman Information Technology and Qwest Government Services. A seventh bidder on the contract -- Sprint International Communications -- did not submit a protest.
A GAO official said at the time that an investigation had found merit to the protests and recommended that the Treasury Department reopen its negotiations with the bidders.
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