Savantage Financial Services Inc. v. United States

81 Fed. Cl. 300, 2008 U.S. Claims LEXIS 112, 2008 WL 1799758
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedMarch 17, 2008
DocketNo. 08-21C
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 81 Fed. Cl. 300 (Savantage Financial Services Inc. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Savantage Financial Services Inc. v. United States, 81 Fed. Cl. 300, 2008 U.S. Claims LEXIS 112, 2008 WL 1799758 (uscfc 2008).

Opinion

[302]*302 OPINION & ORDER

FUTEY, Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Plaintiffs Motion For Summary Judgment On The Administrative Record, as well as Defendant’s Motion To Dismiss Or, In The Alternative, For Judgment Upon The Administrative Record. Plaintiff has also filed a Motion To Supplement The Administrative Record. Plaintiff contests an allegedly improper sole source procurement by the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) for financial systems application software. The specific solicitation identified by plaintiff, Solicitation No. HSHQDC-08-Q-00018 for “Transformation and Systems Consolidation,” is for software development and integration support services to support DHS in its transition to the alleged improperly-selected financial system. Plaintiff requests that this Court prohibit defendant from proceeding with this or any related solicitation until DHS conducts a competitive procurement in accordance with the law to select financial systems application software.

Plaintiff contends that defendant’s selection of financial systems application software via a brand name justification violated the Competition in Contracting Act (“CICA”), 41 U.S.C. § 253(a) (2008), because defendant failed to obtain full and open competition through use of competitive procedures. Plaintiff further asserts that defendant’s Brand Name Justification violates various provisions of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”). Finally, plaintiff avers that defendant’s selection of software systems is arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion.

Defendant, on the other hand, argues that plaintiff has not identified a solicitation or procurement over which this Court would have jurisdiction. Specifically, defendant avers that its selection of financial systems application software was an agency decision to standardize its software, not a procurement. Additionally, defendant asserts that the solicitation identified by plaintiff is a task order request issued under an existing contract, and is thus precluded from this Court’s bid protest jurisdiction by the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (“FASA”). See 41 U.S.C. § 253j (2008). Defendant further contends that plaintiff lacks standing to challenge the award of a task order because it is not an interested party. Moreover, defendant asserts that the solicitation for software development and integration support services is neither arbitrary nor capricious.1

1. Background

The Department of Homeland Security was created in 2003 by a merger of 22 separate federal agencies. Currently, five different financial systems application software solutions are in use among the 22 components: (1) Savantage’s Federal Financial Management System (“FFMS”)2, (2) Oracle Corporation’s Federal Financials Core Accounting System, (3) Systems Applications Products (“SAP”), (4) Integrated Financial Management Information System, and (5) Momentum.

In an effort to integrate DHS’s financial systems, DHS began implementation of the Electronically Managing Enterprise Resources for Government Effectiveness and Efficiency (“eMerge”) project in 2003. Subsequently, DHS abandoned the eMerge project because it failed to build a system that provided value beyond what was already in place at DHS. DHS then proposed instead to consolidate its financial systems application software by “migrating” DHS components to a shared software baseline in the Transformation and Systems Consolidation (“TASC”) initiative.

On July 26, 2007, a DHS contracting officer signed a “Brand Name Justification” document, which indicated that DHS had selected the Oracle and SAP financial management systems as the baseline for its TASC initia[303]*303tive. The Justification states that,[* * *].3 No competition was conducted for the selection of the financial systems application software. DHS did not make the Justification and its supporting documentation available for public inspection.

On August 22, 2007, DHS issued Solicitation No. HSHQDC-07-Q-00294 for services to manage the migration process to the Oracle and SAP systems. The solicitation was open to prospective offerors from functional category four contractors under DHS’s Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading-Edge Solutions (“EAGLE”) contracts, which are Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (“IDIQ”) contracts.4 The solicitation was cancelled on October 4, 2007 because no of-ferors had submitted proposals.

On November 20, 2007, DHS issued the TASC Solicitation No. HSHQDC08-Q-00018 as a task order request under the EAGLE contract, functional category four. The purpose of this solicitation was the same as that issued on August 22, 2007: to provide support in pursuing the TASC initiative to migrate DHS’s financial management software systems to Oracle and SAP. It is this TASC solicitation that plaintiff protests in the instant action, on the basis that the underlying decision to use Oracle and SAP systems as the TASC baseline should have been made through competition.

Plaintiff Savantage Financial Services (“Savantage”) filed this bid protest with the United States Court of Federal Claims on January 11, 2008. Plaintiff seeks injunctive and declaratory relief prohibiting DHS from proceeding with the TASC solicitation or any related solicitation or task order without first complying with applicable statutory and regulatory requirements in its selection of a financial systems application software migration candidate for its TASC initiative.

2. Discussion

A. Standard of Review

When considering a Motion to Dismiss pursuant to RCFC 12(b)(1), “[t]he court must accept as true the facts alleged in the complaint and must construe such facts in the light most favorable to the pleader.” Patton v. United States, 64 Fed.Cl. 768, 773 (2005) (citing Reynolds v. Army & Air Force Exch. Serv., 846 F.2d 746, 747 (Fed.Cir.1988)). When the court’s subject matter jurisdiction is called into question, the plaintiff “bears the burden of establishing subject matter jurisdiction by a preponderance of the evidence.” Id. (citing Reynolds, 846 F.2d at 748).

“[A] Motion for Judgment on the Administrative Record, pursuant to RCFC 52.1, is similar but not identical to a Motion for Summary Judgment, pursuant to RCFC 56.” Info. Scis. Corp. v. United States, 73 Fed.Cl. 70, 97-98 (2006) (citing Bannum, Inc. v. United States, 404 F.3d 1346, 1355 (Fed.Cir.2005)). Summary judgment is appropriate when there are no genuine issues of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See RCFC 56(c); Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Jay v. Sec’y, DHHS, 998 F.2d 979, 982 (Fed.Cir.1993).

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Bluebook (online)
81 Fed. Cl. 300, 2008 U.S. Claims LEXIS 112, 2008 WL 1799758, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/savantage-financial-services-inc-v-united-states-uscfc-2008.