GAO recommends Army take corrective action on ITES-2S awards

The Government Accountability Office announced Tuesday it has sided with five protesters who lodged complaints when the Army awarded its $20 billion Information Technology Enterprise Solutions-2 Services contracts to 11 vendors in the spring.

In its decision, GAO recommended that the Army take corrective action on the ITES-2S awards, although additional information is under protective order for at least another week. The protestors lodged complaints alleging improper technical cost evaluation.

"It's a recommendation and they'll have to take some corrective measures. How that plays out I can't say at this point," said Michael Golden, associate general counsel at GAO.

The Army has 60 days to respond to GAO's recommendations, Golden said.

The five companies which lodged protests include: BAE Systems North America Inc. of Rockville, Md.; Multimax of Largo, Md.; NCI Information Systems of Reston, Va.; Northrop Grumman Corp.; and Pragmatics Inc. of McLean, Va.

ITES-2S is a consolidated contract vehicle for products and services, and serves as a follow-on to the original ITES-Enterprise Mission Support Services Solutions contracts. Services under ITES-2S include business process re-engineering, information systems security, information assurance, IT services, network support, systems operations and maintenance, program management, enterprise design, integration and consolidation and education and training.

The Army, Defense Department and other federal agencies are authorized to order off of ITES-2S by issuing individual task orders.

The Army awarded the nine-year contract to 11 companies ? eight large and three small businesses on April 14. In August, the Army released a request for proposals for its $5 billion Information Technology Enterprise Solutions-Hardware contracts. The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity ITES-2H contracts will run for five years and involve seven contractors. The Army expects to award the ITES-2H contracts in late November.

Dawn S. Onley is a staff writer for Washington Technology's sister publication, Government Computer News.