Army's $50B MAPS contract hit with wave of protests over evaluation criteria
Gettyimages.com/ WANAN YOSSINGKUM
By
Nick Wakeman
Seven protesters (so far) are citing scoring ambiguities, tight deadlines and "systemic procurement instability."
A group of companies are challenging aspects of the criteria being used to evaluate proposals for the Army’s $50 billion MAPS professional services contract.
After several delays, the Army pushed the deadline for proposals for the Marketplace for the Acquisition of Professional Services vehicle until late June.
The delays did not stop several more companies from filing protests.
The current group of protesters includes Kearney & Co., Manutek Inc., NextGen Federal Systems, Integral Federal, Cinteot, Alpha Tech Alliance and the JAAW Group.
Some of the challenges to the evaluation criteria include unduly restrictive requirements, ambiguities in self-scoring scorecard, and how credits are applied for small business contracts.
Among the challenges also are complaints about the process the Army is using. One company says there are “systemic procurement instability” because of changes to the solicitation numbering and Sam.gov posting protocols.
When the Army posted new scorecards, bidders had just four calendar days (and one business day) to respond before the request for proposals closed in June.
A second protester said that the Army is using provisions of the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul, but still includes pre-RFP provisions throughout. That protester is arguing the Army is bundling and consolidating requirements without complying with statutory requirements.
A third challenge focuses on how the solicitation limits the size of submissions to 5 megabytes, but some files such as the scorecard already exceed 5 MB before companies enter data into them.
The protests were filed between mid June and early July, so the due dates for Government Accountability Office decisions range from mid-September to mid-October.
GAO can decide to bundle them into a single decision, but the variety of challenges being raised indicates we will likely see multiple decisions. We could also see multiple corrective actions if the Army decisions to make changes to address the challenges.
The Army has indicated it hopes to make awards in September, but it cannot make awards if protest decisions are still pending.