The U.S. Army said in late February that would award a four-month bridge contract without competition to PR contractor Lincoln Group in Iraq because of “unusual and compelling urgency,” according to a procurement document, as elections in the country approach on March 7.
Lincoln Group, which has changed leadership over the past few years, now does business as Fulcra Worldwide but has handled Iraq PR work since the U.S. invasion in 2003, when the firm was known as Iraqex. It has also worked with the military in Afghanistan.
Fulcra supports various strategic communications tasks for the U.S. military in Iraq, including media monitoring and PR consulting. The value of the latest pact with the Joint Contracting Command-Iraq/Afghanistan, is not known.
“The need for this requirement remains critical and a lapse in service would be severely detrimental to the Strategic Communications Division mission during the critical time period following Iraqi elections due to be held on March 7, 2010,” reads a procurement document from the Pentagon. (PDF of document)
A contracting official has not yet been reached about the value of the add-on contract.
The Army said Fulcra’s contract is set to expire on March 22 and a four-month bridge contract is required to avoid interruption of service. It had initially planned a competitive proposal process, but Fulcra claimed proprietary rights to information and processes that would have been turned over to the winning firm (whether or not it was the incumbent, Fulcra).
A new RFP is being worked out to include the need to develop a database or purchase the current database from Fulcra. |