Contractor prevails in A-76 protest at Army post

The Comptroller General has upheld a contractor's protest of a decision to keep base operations jobs in-house at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, the General Accounting Office announced recently.

Now Aberdeen managers must decide whether to reopen the competition to new bidders or revise the in-house cost estimates-and risk losing the bid for a second time.

The competition, begun two years ago under Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, started a roller-coaster ride last summer, when the Army lost out in an A-76 competition to Aberdeen Technical Services (ATS), a group of contractors including DynCorp, R.F. Weston, Aramark Education Services and Science Applications International Corp. The competition was for managing industrial operations, such as base maintenance, child care centers, logistics operations and recreation programs. Under A-76, an in-house team at Aberdeen prepared a "most efficient organization" (MEO) cost estimate for keeping the work within government. The MEO cost turned out to be higher than ATS' bid.

But an employee appeal pointed out that ATS had incorrectly calculated its costs for health and welfare benefits. As a result, the decision to outsource was overturned and the Army employees prevailed.

Then ATS protested, challenging the cost comparison on several grounds. In a Feb. 22 decision, the Comptroller General upheld five of the contractor's 16 protest points.

The Comptroller General agreed with ATS that the Army's cost comparison was not complete. Key personnel, such as a project manager, quality assurance and procurement specialists, for example, were not included in the original in-house estimate, ATS alleged.

"Adjusting the MEO to reflect the key personnel positions could result in an upward adjustment to the government's estimate of as much as $11 million," the Comptroller General decision said. But Aberdeen officials said they intended for the duties in question to be shared by employees with other responsibilities.

If the Army continues to argue that project management and other duties should be loaded on people with other responsibilities, then it should issue a new request for bids, the Comptroller General said. Otherwise, Aberdeen needs to factor the additional positions into its MEO calculation and conduct a new cost comparison with ATS.

Aberdeen officials are in the process of deciding what to do. They have until the end of April to make their decision. In the meantime, things are running smoothly at the base, Karen Jolley Drewen, an Aberdeen spokesperson, said. "Everything is kind of in a holding pattern right now, but the services the garrison provides are still getting done," she said.

If the contractor prevails, 558 positions are slotted to be cut. But the actual number of people who would lose their jobs is hard to determine. Since the A-76 competition has been going on for two years now, "we've had lots of time for people to get their resumes together or accept early-outs," Drewen said.