Lockheed Martin Corporation (B-423294)

You should not care.

Category: Organizational conflict of interest (OCI)

Date: 2 May 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423294

Lockheed Martin protested the Air Force’s handling of alleged organizational conflicts of interest (OCIs) in the recompete of its Tactical Operations Center—Light (TOC-L) prototype systems contract. The protest centered on Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), the prior awardee, and whether its roles as the CBC2 software integrator and Digital Infrastructure Consortium member created impaired objectivity and unequal access to information OCIs. Lockheed Martin also challenged the sufficiency of solicitation information concerning integration of government-furnished BC3 software.

GAO denied the protest in full. The record showed the Air Force conducted a meaningful, fact-specific OCI investigation and reasonably concluded that SAIC had no actual OCIs and that any potential ones were mitigated. Specifically, the agency relied on structural controls, including technical oversight gates, firewall protocols, equal access through a “bidder’s library,” and explicit contract language. GAO also dismissed Lockheed Martin’s late-breaking challenge to the Air Force’s waiver of OCI rules as academic, since it had already found no underlying OCI.

On Lockheed’s claim that the solicitation lacked enough detail for intelligent proposal development, GAO found the provided SRD gap analysis and integration documentation sufficient, affirming that contractors must apply judgment where risk is inherent and complete specs are unavailable.

Digest

1. Protest that the agency failed to properly consider organizational conflicts of interest (OCIs) is denied where the record shows that the contracting officer gave meaningful consideration to whether the prospective offeror had OCIs and there is no clear evidence in the record that the agency’s conclusion was unreasonable.
2. Supplemental protest challenging the adequacy of the agency’s waiver of rules and procedures pertaining to an OCI is dismissed, where the waiver was executed shortly before GAO’s statutory 100-day deadline, our Office was already prepared to conclude that the OCI allegations had no merit, and GAO’s decision to deny the OCI challenge renders academic the challenge to the waiver.
3. Protest that solicitation deprives vendors of the ability to compete intelligently is denied where the record shows that the solicitation is drafted in a fashion that enables vendors to intelligently prepare their proposals.