Protests by Vendors Leads to Cancellation of $500 Million Motorola Deal with FBI

Protests by multiple vendors have led to the cancellation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's $500 million no-bid deal with the Motorola Solutions Inc. to upgrade the agency's 30-year old communication networks.

The reason given by the FBI for not seeking competitive bids was that the existent Motorola system was not compatible with other equipment s and giving the contract to other companies would require a further investment of around $1.2 billion to bring the systems at par, reports the mcclatchydc.com.

Almost 80 percent of the U.S. public safety market is cornered by the Illinois-based Motorola.

Three companies have lodged protests with the Government Accountability Office saying that the bureau's proposal to forgo competitive bidding was "factually unsound, legally unwarranted and wholly unnecessary."

They claim that uniform design standards in radio equipment ensure compatibility with other brands.

The official protest by the RELM Wireless Corp., the Harris Corp. and Texas-based E.F. Johnson Technologies led three senior House Democrats to request the Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog to investigate the Motorola contract further.

In a reply to the move, assistant FBI General Counsel Jack Cordes Jr.  said that FBI's reasons for going with Motorola were not clear.

"Therefore, as corrective action, the FBI will cancel the solicitation and reassess its requirements, as well as the acquisition strategy for meeting them," he wrote, reports mcclatchydc.com.

Motorola's deal with FBI would have allowed other agencies within the Homeland Security and Justice departments to purchase Motorola equipment worth $170 million over the next five years.