Modification trips up ManTech’s protest over Army award
Gettyimages.com/David Talukdar
By
Nick Wakeman
The fight is over after the Army amended the task order and lowered its value below the threshold for protests.
The Government Accountability Office has rejected a protest by ManTech International because the Army task order in question was not valuable enough to qualify for GAO's jurisdiction.
Task orders need to be worth more than $25 million. This one was worth more than that, but then it wasn’t.
ManTech was the incumbent on a contract to provide services supporting the Joint Common Access Platform. But the Army chose Booz Allen Hamilton in June through a recompete held under the R4 vehicle.
ManTech filed a protest challenging the evaluation. At the end of July, the Army said it would take corrective action to address issues raised by the company. GAO then dismissed ManTech’s protest.
But the current contract expired on Sept. 3 and the Army still needed the support services.
We normally see agencies issue a bridge contract to the incumbent. But in this case the Army awarded a six-month, $13.7 million bridge contract to Booz Allen. That award also included a six-month option.
ManTech filed a fresh protest, but the Army said GAO did not have the authority to hear the challenge. The Army argued that Defense Department task orders must be valued at least $25 million for them to be protested.
ManTech argued that the real value of the bridge contract was $27.4 million because the bridge contract also included a six-month option.
After ManTech raised this argument, the Army amended the task order to remove the option. Problem solved from the Army's perspective.
ManTech continued to argue that GAO should consider the value of the task order at the time of the protest and not after the amendment. But GAO said no.
“There is no indication in the record that the agency included the value of the option in the total price that the agency considered in making the award,” GAO wrote.
I can only imagine how frustrated the folks at ManTech are. They have declined to comment.
Now ManTech can just wait for the Army to make a decision on the corrective action. But it sure seems they want Booz Allen pretty bad.