The Defense Intelligence Agency has announced it will put out a proposal to consolidate the number of outside contractors used by the agency from 30 to five.
While the number of contractors will be significantly reduced, the winners of the award could see a payday of up to $1 billion.
“As a result of this [Request For Proposal], the Government intends to make an estimated five awards, yet reserves the right to award none, or any other number of contracts, depending on the quality of submissions,” the government said in a Aug. 10 presolicitation notice. “The decision to award more than one contract is within the Government’s unilateral discretion and subject to the Contracting Officer’s determination as to whether or not multiple awards are in the Government’s best interests. The actual number of awards will depend heavily on the evaluation of the proposals.”
The notice said the companies selected would assist in intelligence-gathering operations, including analysis of the data and creating strategies on how to act on the intelligence.
The agency did not return repeated calls for comment.
More information on the contract was supposed to be made public last week. However, the agency posted a notice on Aug. 30 telling potential bidders that additional information would not be available until later this month.
The contract represents a significant outsourcing of intelligence gathering activities. Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill have criticized the practice; the agency maintains that the most sensitive intelligence operations are done in-house.
