Army reopens $50B MAPS contract to small business teams only

The Army has opened a narrow opportunity that lets some in industry submit revised proposals for its $50 billion professional services contract.

The Army is responding to recommendations from a Government Accountability Office protest decision over the summer, but this approach may open it to more protests.

GAO sustained the protest filed by Intelligence Consulting Enterprise Solutions in August and said the Army should amend the Marketplace for the Acquisition of Professional Services solicitation to allow small business teams to submit proposals.

On Tuesday, the Army released an amendment to the solicitation that allows small business teams to submit proposals by Nov. 12. Small businesses that submitted standalone proposals can also withdraw those proposals, then submit as a small business team.

No one else can revise their bids. That includes large businesses, small business joint ventures and small businesses that want to stay standalone primes.

This could open the Army for even more protests, which have plagued MAPS from nearly the beginning.

The Army’s amendment is a narrow interpretation of what GAO recommended and exposes the service branch to accusations of unequal treatment. For example, the original solicitation already allowed small business joint ventures to submit proposals and these JVs are not permitted to submit revisions.

Bidders who cannot revise prices and restructure their proposals are against a field that did not include small business teams. Now those teams are entering the competition, and the original bidders cannot respond.

That is the unequal treatment argument.

Agencies have discretion to limit revisions during corrective action, as long as the limits are reasonable. The Army can argue that only team-based offers are affected by the change.

Any protest challenging the amendment’s terms would have to be filed before the Nov. 12 deadline.