GAO tells the Army to reopen $50B MAPS contract

The Army has to reopen its $50 billion MAPS contract yet again, but this time it is because the Government Accountability Office says the service was wrong to block small businesses from teaming up to compete for the professional services vehicle.

GAO's Aug. 11 decision to sustain part of a protest by Intelligence Consulting Enterprise Solutions is the first ruling in the wave of MAPS challenges to actually force a change to the solicitation, rather than end in a dismissal.

A protest by JAAW Group was dismissed because GAO found that there was no factual basis for the protest. JAAW merely did not follow directions.

GAO denied three out of arguments from ICES. Challenges to the Army's solicitation numbering scheme, ban on the use of classified contracts as past performance references, and handling of pre-proposal questions all fell short.

But ICES' teaming argument is the one that landed.

The MAPS solicitation bars small businesses from forming prime/subcontractor teams to bid, though the Army does allow small business joint ventures.

The Army's position is that the Small Business Act uses the word "or" when it talks about "teams or joint ventures of small business concerns," which the service branched argued lets it pick which one to allow.

GAO disagreed, saying that the that "or" creates a choice for the small business making the offer and not for the agency writing the solicitation.

In GAO's words, the statute "creates a positive right for a small business concern...to submit an offer" using either structure, and the Army "is wrong about with whom the discretion lies."

To make the ruling, GAO also leaned on the broader purpose of the Small Business Act's consolidation provisions.

When agencies combine multiple contracts into one vehicle, they need to take steps to maximize small business participation instead of restricting it. MAPS merges the RS3 and the ITES-3 vehicles.

The ruling also could have implications beyond MAPS. In a footnote, GAO said that the question raised in the protest has “widespread interest to the procurement community" because it has not been decided before.

GAO recommended the Army amend the solicitation to allow small business teams alongside joint ventures, reopen MAPS for revised proposals and reimburse ICES's protest costs.

That means another likely delay for a contract that has already been amended multiple times and drawn more than a dozen protests. The Army had hoped to make awards this month.

Six other protests are still open at GAO. Some decisions are not due until late September and into October.