A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge this week ordered the U.S. General Services Administration "to conduct a reevaluation" of Carlson Wagonlit Travel's bid to serve as a contractor for the second-generation E-Gov Travel Service contract, awarded exclusively to Concur last May.
"In the interim, the contract award to Concur shall remain in full force and effect," according to Judge Margaret Sweeney.
Carlson's government-focused travel management unit CWTSatoTravel in October filed a second post-award protest against the federal government, claiming GSA's "unprecedented" 15-year, $1.3 billion contract for end-to-end travel services to a single provider violated federal contracting standards. The court this week denied motions filed by Concur and GSA to dismiss those claims.
"We are pleased with the judge's decision, as we believe that such an evaluation is warranted and should be conducted, and look forward to working with the GSA when they decide to conduct the evaluation ordered by the court," according to a statement attributed to Matt Beatty, president of Military & Government Markets for CWTSatoTravel.
The full opinion and order, dated March 27, was filed under seal with a redacted version of the ruling expected within weeks. As such, "we have not been provided any additional information at this time," according to Beatty.
GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.