The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has committed to holding a fresh competition for construction oversight work across the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico after federal auditors uncovered serious lapses in how the agency assessed competing bids.
The problems surfaced when Atlanta-based Accura Engineering and Consulting Services challenged the Corps' November 2024 selection of Radise International L.C., a Puerto Rico company, to handle quality assurance for federal building projects. The Government Accountability Office backed Accura's complaint in February 2026, finding two critical mistakes in the procurement process.
The Corps had neglected to factor in what contractors would charge for future contract years, even though its own bidding documents explicitly required those figures in the evaluation. Additionally, the agency skipped a mandatory step to verify that proposed prices made practical sense given the scope of work involved.
Radise bid $1,114,808 for the first task order against Accura's $947,949. The Corps had justified picking the higher-priced Radise bid by citing its superior technical rating. That reasoning collapsed once the pricing errors came to light.
On February 26, the Army Corps told the GAO it would launch a new solicitation with corrected price-evaluation procedures and invite all interested firms, including Accura, to submit fresh bids. The GAO then closed Accura's protest.
Accura also sought payment for legal costs tied to complaints about how the Corps had rated Radise's technical proposal, claiming the agency had overlooked risks in Radise's staffing plan. The GAO declined that request in June 2026, treating the technical grievances as separate from the pricing failures. Accura's appeal was rejected on August 5.
In May 2026, the Army Corps released a new procurement notice for quality assurance services spanning civil works, military construction and other federal initiatives in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The contract carries a ceiling of $35 million across up to five years and six months. The notice stated the Corps expected to issue a formal request for proposals by July, though publicly available records do not confirm whether a new award has been made.
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