Army Corps of Engineers will manage its own IT

The Army Corps of Engineers will continue to handle nearly $450 million worth of information management and IT work, Corps officials announced today after a heated, 18-month, public-private competition for the contract.

Unsuccessful bidders may protest the decision before the contract is implemented, Corps officials said.

The competition, which began in June 2004, involved work performed by more than 1,300 employees and more than 500 contractors at Corps locations throughout the United States. Public-private competitions are conducted under provisions of Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76.

Under the circular, the federal employees performing the work compete against the private sector and other public reimbursable service providers.

Lockheed Martin, in an announcement, said the company will be a major subcontractor to the Army Corps' team under the contract. Lockheed Martin officials declined to say how much the contract is worth to the company, referring those questions to the Army Corps of Engineers. Officials from the Army Corps of Engineers did not return phone calls in time for this story.

The team will serve Corps' civil works, military construction and research and development missions at over 50 locations, providing infrastructure systems management, records management and document management, communications, desktop support, service desk, strategic planning, testing and solutions, information security, visual information, and printing and publications, Lockheed officials said.

Under the terms of the agreement, the team expects to manage the services for at least six years, equaling one phase-in year, one regular year and four option years. The agreement may be extended for three more option years for a total of nine years.

Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., has about 135,000 employees and had annual sales of $37.2 billion in fiscal 2005. The company ranks No. 1 on Washington Technology's 2006 Top 100 list of the largest federal IT contractors.