Agriculture to rebid massive eTravel contract
Both USDA and provider EDS say the break was mutual.
The Agriculture Department's electronic travel system contract will be rebid after the agency and the technology contractor providing the online service agreed to void the arrangement, which is worth an estimated $50 million.
Officials at both Agriculture and Plano, Texas-based, Electronic Data Systems Corp., said the termination was mutually agreed upon and that EDS will continue to provide travel services to USDA under a previous contract until the agency awards a new eTravel contract.
Agriculture's eTravel contract is one of the largest projected task orders under the General Services Administration's eTravel Service program, which is valued at $450 million over 10 years, for providing an online travel booking program to all federal agencies except the Defense Department. While the USDA contract was initially valued at $93 million, EDS revised that estimate to $109 million earlier this year. An Agriculture official says that the contract is currently estimated at around $50 million.
In a statement, Agriculture officials said, "USDA and EDS mutually have agreed to discontinue their work on eTravel implementation at USDA.
"In the meantime, USDA will continue to obtain travel management services through the EDS Travel Management Centers and Fedtraveler.com. USDA continues to support the [President's Management Agenda] initiative on eTravel."
The Agriculture eTravel service contract was said to be EDS' second-largest in monetary value, topped only by the Homeland Security Department at $148.6 million.
Fedtraveler.com, EDS' online travel reservation service, was touted by agency officials about a year ago as "one of the best systems at the lowest cost."
EDS spokesman Kevin Clarke said the USDA action was only a partial termination because Agriculture will continue to contract with EDS for travel management services under a "bridge solution" contract originally set up to consolidate the department's numerous travel management contracts. EDS will continue to provide travel services only until the agency selects a new eTravel provider.
"While EDS has some disappointment with the results, we and the department mutually agree that this action was in the best interest of the program," Clark said. "We are not at liberty to discuss the specifics of the agreement."
According to sources familiar with the matter, the problem in implementing the online booking system was technological and not related to the travel management services being provided by EDS' travel service providers, which included Lanham, Md.-based Zagato and other smaller travel agencies.
Under GSA's eTravel program, a system provider is selected along with a primary travel service provider, and EDS was partnered with Navigant Sato Travel. Marc Stec, Navigant's vice president for contracts and proposals, did not return telephone calls requesting comment.
Government agencies face a September 2006 deadline to implement their online reservation systems. Agriculture officials said the department was on track for meeting that deadline. USDA originally was scheduled to finish its eTravel migration by the end of the 2006's fourth quarter, after starting the implementation in the middle of 2005's fourth quarter.
Prior to losing Agriculture's eTravel contract, EDS was poised to dominate the eTravel arena, gathering nearly 75 percent of the overall contract's projected cash value after initially being denied the opportunity to compete.
GSA reopened the program to competition after EDS filed a Government Accountability Office bid protest. EDS was subsequently added to the list of possible companies the agencies could select for providing the online travel program.
Like the systems proposed by the two other eTravel contractors -- CW Government Travel Inc.'s E2 Solutions and Northrop Grumman Corp.'s GovTrip.com - the Internet-based system performed travel planning functions such as authorizations, flight reservations, voucher approvals auditing and reporting.
A House-approved version of GSA's appropriations measure--the fiscal 2006 Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill (H.R. 3058--bars any spending of funds on the eTravel program, but the Senate version, awaiting action on the floor after passing the Appropriations Committee, contains a 23 percent small business requirement mandate.
If the full Senate passes the bill, the differences will be worked out in a conference committee.