GAO finds flaws in Army’s LOGCAP V task order awards
Gettyimages.com/Cavan Images
By
Nick Wakeman
The government watchdog recommends the Army re-evaluate proposals after protests by KBR and V2X.
The Government Accountability Office has found multiple faults with how the Army awarded task orders under the LOGCAP V contract.
A joint venture comprised of Amentum and Parsons won several task orders for pre-positioning stock services in various locations around the world. The five task orders in question range in value from $64.7 million to $128.2 million.
The Army awarded the task orders under the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program V program.
KBR and V2X both filed protests against the Amentum-Parsons JV win.
Amentum-Parsons also filed a protest against a task order won by KBR, which GAO dismissed.
KBR and V2X challenged several aspects of the Army’s decision to pick the Amentum-Parsons JV, including evaluation of proposals, technical approach and past performance.
GAO released three sets of decisions on the protest. You can read the decisions here, here, and here.
GAO found that the Army accepted the Amentum-Parsons proposal even though the service branch did not follow some of the requirements in the solicitation, particularly with its small business plan. The Army resolved the inconsistencies without reopening discussions with bidders.
The protesters also argued that the Army was prejudiced against them, which GAO said was a reasonable conclusion given the procurement record.
GAO found that the Army didn’t try to rebut some of the challenges in the protests, particularly V2X’s argument that the Army should have rated aspects of its proposals as strengths. The Army’s response was that it would not have changed the outcome.
If the Army had rated V2X’s proposal with those strengths, it may have won the contract. “For these reasons, we conclude that Vectrus has established a reasonable likelihood of competitive prejudice, GAO wrote.
GAO said the award to the Amentum-Parsons joint venture was improper and it wants the Army to reevaluate proposals, reopen discussions, accept revised proposals, and make a new award decision.
For its part, Amentum-Parsons filed on Tuesday for a reconsideration at GAO to try and get the Army to take another look at protests. GAO will rule by Jan. 23.
Until the reconsideration is resolved, the Army is unlikely to move on the findings of the protest decision.