Watchdog rejects complaint over NASA IT contract

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has rejected a complaint alleging US system integrator Leidos nabbed a juicy NASA IT contract after engaging a former NASA official to help prepare its proposal. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), one of the space agency's centres whose …

[Anonymous Coward]

I work for SAIC but not space-related things

But I almost ended up in that area.

About a year in to my SAIC tenure (3 years ago), an Army program we were bidding on decided to change tack dramatically. We all got a "4 weeks paid plus 4 weeks unpaid" notice. I started a job hunt, but new work showed up before the salary disappeared and before I got word back from some of my other job leads.

One of those leads was still with SAIC, doing NASA work at Goddard SFC. While technically remote work was possible, they wanted me on-site. I was not looking forward to dragging my family to Maryland with the higher cost of living and housing compared to where we are (and away from extended family).

With the new work, we were so excited that a month later we bid on a new house locally with an inground pool and more space including a true home office, all of which have been highly useful through the pandemic and full-time work-from-home. It's been a blessing.

Knowing that SAIC's NASA story is ending makes me feel doubly blessed that I could stay with Army contracts -- and near family, just in case -- instead of moving.

[Anonymous Coward]

America. If you can't win fairly, whinge, sue, and whine in court. :(

[innominatus]

Not so much a "revolving door” where government officials leave office to become lobbyists but perhaps the ingenious application of orbital mechanics?

[OldSod]

How the mighty have fallen

I worked for SAI (Science Applications, Incorporated) and then SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation) for a number of years before a) the original employee-owned company was taken public, and b) the eventual split into LEIDOS and SAIC. I left after it went public but just before the split. The SAIC name was the name of the overall entity before the split, by the way, with the LEIDOS name being invented as part of the breakup. The original firm, founded by Dr. J. Robert Beyster, prided itself on doing good work and being entirely employee-owned. It was a fantastic place to work, and a tribute to Dr. Beyster's original vision. One of the informal guidelines in the original company was to *not* protest contract awards. That makes it somewhat sad that there was a protest by one shard against the other. The writing was on the wall by the time the original company was taken public, something Dr. Beyster was against. He got old and eventually had to let go of the reins, at which point senior managers that I think had less conviction and more greed (they saw even bigger $$ for themselves by going public) took over. I saw the original internal ethics process morph from a "we want to do the right thing always" approach to a "compliance" approach, which certainly didn't help maintain the spirit of the original corporation. Ah, well. The king is dead, and the kingdom was raped, pillaged, then split asunder. (These views are my statements of my opinion in case any legal beagles are reading this.)

[nijam]

Re: How the mighty have fallen

> The king is dead, and the kingdom was raped, pillaged, then split asunder. (These views are my statements of my opinion in case any legal beagles are reading this.)

If they read it and object, that's pretty much evidence that your opinion is justified, I'd say.