The Government Accountability Office has denied DZSP 21’s bid protest against the Navy’s award of the nearly half-a-billion-dollar base operation contract to Fluor Federal Solutions LLC, clearing the way for transition process.
GAO posted the notice of protest denial on Jan. 10, but details of the decision were not available. The notice indicated the protest was covered by a protective order, “which means that some information in the decision may require redaction before public release.”
A final redacted version of the decision will be posted upon completion of the process, GAO said.
The Naval Facilities Engineering Command announced the contract award to South Carolina-based Fluor Federal Solutions on Sept. 22, dislodging DZSP 21, which has been the base operations contractor for more than 10 years. DZSP 21 filed the protest on Oct. 3.
The contract for the work to be performed for Joint Region Marianas, carries a maximum dollar value of $494,519,656, according to the Department of Defense contract website. Included are facility support and base operating support, covering “management and administration, port operations, ordnance, material management, facility management, facility investment, electrical, wastewater, steam, water, base support vehicles and equipment and environmental.” The work at various Guam locations is expected to be completed by September 2025. Navy, Air Force, Air National Guard and Defense Department operations are involved.
Fluor is the third company to hold the contract on Guam since the Navy first started employing a civilian contractor to handle base operations. Raytheon held the Guam Navy contract from early 2000 to 2005. DZSP 21 took over in 2005.
DZSP 21 has 900 employees, who may be absorbed by Fluor.
This was the latest in a thread of protests involving the highly-contested contract.
The RFP for base operations was reissued in 2016 based on the protest filed by Fluor Federal Solutions and KBR Marianas Support Services, LLC, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana against the Navy's contract award to DZSP 21. In sustaining the protest, GAO concluded that “the agency failed to document why it changed its ratings when the offerors did not increase proposed staffing levels commensurate with the agency’s discussion questions.”