Army to re-evaluate ITES-2 contracts

After reviewing protests filed by losing bidders on the Army's recent Information Technology Enterprise Solutions-2 Services contracts, the Army has decided to re-evaluate all offers.

"While the protests generally have no merit, we have concluded that it is necessary to re-evaluate information provided by some offerors pertaining to one of the evaluation subfactors," Barbara J. Trujillo, the ITES-2S contracting officer, wrote this week in a letter to Army trial attorney Karl M. Ellcessor. "This information may alter some of the ratings assigned for that subfactor, and therefore it could affect the award decision ultimately reached by the Source Selection Authority."

Trujillo said the existing awards will remain in place until the Army can reassess all offers and determine whether any new awards are warranted. "Following the new award decisions, the Army will take appropriate contract action regarding the existing awards," Trujillo wrote. "No contract work will be performed under the existing contracts until this review of offers is accomplished."

Five companies lodged protests with the Government Accountability Office, criticizing the Army for its award of the $20 billion, ITES-2S contracts. Those companies were 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.

In a follow-up letter sent yesterday, Ellcessor told David A. Ashen, GAO's deputy assistant general counsel, that the Army had determined "corrective action is appropriate."

"This will require re-evaluation of offers and a reassessment of the comparative trade-off analysis for all offers," Ellcessor wrote.

The Army awarded contracts to 11 companies?eight large and three small businesses?April 14.

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 reengineering, 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 ITES-2S by issuing individual task orders.

The Army also plans to issue a request for proposals around May 15 for its second round of ITES-Hardware contracts, which it hopes to award in August. The new ITES-2H contract vehicle will have a ceiling of $10 billion over 10 years.

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