GAO sustained protests by Amentum Technology Inc. and SOS International (SOSi) on January 27, 2026 in B-423898 et al. — the only GAO sustain decision in January 2026 — challenging the Defense Intelligence Agency's $814.9 million task order award to General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) for analytic support to U.S. Central Command's Joint Intelligence Operations Center (JIOC) at MacDill AFB, Tampa. Coverage from Government Contracts Legal Forum and Washington Technology.

What made this case unusual

DIA required technical proposals to be delivered as oral presentations, not written responses, and recorded those sessions. The recordings became the decisive exhibit — GAO compared what offerors actually said against the agency's evaluation notes.

The two grounds GAO sustained

  • Unequal treatment of Amentum: DIA assigned GDIT a strength for a training discussion while assigning Amentum a weakness for the same topic — even though Amentum's approach was, in GAO's words, "far more detail" and "more rigorous than" GDIT's
  • Unsupported weakness against SOSi: DIA cited SOSi for discussing "legacy networks decommissioned over 8 years ago" — but the recordings showed SOSi never said that

GAO's recommended remedy

  • Reevaluate proposals consistent with the solicitation
  • Make a new source-selection determination with adequate documentation
  • If the reevaluation selects someone other than GDIT, terminate GDIT's task order for convenience

Why it matters

Unequal-treatment sustains are rare — they require GAO to compare proposals side-by-side and conclude the agency favored one offeror without basis. The oral-presentation format here is the twist: when proposals are delivered orally, recordings can directly contradict an agency's after-the-fact rationalization.

What to do

  • If you lost a close oral-presentation evaluation: request the recording in your debrief — and check it against the SSD's stated reasoning
  • Evaluators: cite the recording timestamp when assigning a strength or weakness — "vague impression" comments don't survive GAO review against the tape

Sources