Rep. Davis (R-Va.), chmn. of House Govt. Reform Subcommittee on T...

Rep. Davis (R-Va.), chmn. of House Govt. Reform Subcommittee on Technology and Procurement Policy, sent letter to Social Security Administration (SSA) April 18 seeking more information on agency’s plans in response to recent General Accounting Office (GAO) decision. In decision made in Dec. but not released until earlier this month, GAO upheld protest by Rockwell Electronic Commerce on telecom contract awarded to WorldCom. GAO concluded that SSA hadn’t evaluated all related FTS 2001 costs linked to WorldCom bid. Rockwell argued WorldCom had edge in bidding because it didn’t include costs of FTS 2001 in its bid package. (WorldCom and Sprint share FTS 2001 contract awarded by General Services Administration [GSA]). In letter to SSA Comr. Larry Massanari, Davis said request for proposals cited by GAO decision “was one of the first significant competitive bids since the award of FTS 2001 and I would like to know how SSA handled the evaluation of FTS 2001 so it did not thwart the competitive process.” Davis said he was interested in learning how FTS 2001 was evaluated and “whether there was adequate competitive opportunity for private industry.” Davis said he was particularly interested in SSA’s plans to address “the concerns expressed by the GAO in their decision.” Letter came as Subcommittee planned to hold hearing on FTS 2001 Thurs. Expected to testify are officials of GAO, GSA, Dept. of Defense, Qwest, Sprint, WorldCom, AT&T.