Transportation Command at Scott awards $7.2 billion military moving contract firm
U.S. Transportation Command announced Monday it would proceed with a $7.2 billion contract with American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier Group, Inc. (ARC) to improve military moving services, after temporarily halting the award to look into what it has now determined to be unsubstantiated allegations against the winning firm.
“After a thorough review of all relevant information, the contracting officer made an independent determination that the allegations were unsubstantiated,” Transportation Command, which is located at Scott Air Force Base near Belleville, Ill., said in a statement.
ARC, based in Parsippany, N.J., won the large U.S. Transportation Command contract in April to help the Defense Department centralize military moves.
The April award was quickly challenged by two firms that did not win the contract, HomeSafe Alliance LLC and Connected Global Solutions LLC, which filed a bid protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office to review the award.
In an unusual turn, Transportation Command alerted the GAO on June 9 it was going to look again at the award to ARC, which had the effect of canceling the bid protest.
“An interested party presented information that they believe should have been considered in the award decision. Specifically, they alleged that ARC did not properly disclose adverse information of its parent company, and the parent company’s executives as required. USTRANSCOM agreed to examine those allegations through a process known as ‘corrective action,’” the Command said in a statement.
A contracting officer at U.S. Transportation Command then reviewed the additional information while “the source selection team reviewed the entire source selection record. Revised source selection documentation was approved on June 29, 2020,” Transportation Command said. “Accordingly, the award to ARC was confirmed on June 29, 2020.”
ARC had previously told McClatchy its business is completely separate from another firm owned by its same Norwegian-based parent company. The other subsidiary, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics AS (WWL), was fined almost $100 million by the Justice Department in 2016 for price-fixing.
“Team ARC remains committed to our proposal to provide exceptional customer service to TRANSCOM and the Service Members,” ARC chief executive officer Eric Ebeling said in a statement. “We look forward to getting started.”
The military completes about 400,000 household moves a year of service members’ vehicles, furniture and clothing as they and their dependents are transferred from one base to another.
Military families have faced significant delays over the years in receiving their furniture and belongings, and have frequently complained about lost or damaged personal property. In 2019, more than 107,000 people signed a Change.org petition to demand that the Pentagon’s moving process be overhauled.
This story was originally published June 29, 2020 at 5:51 PM.
