OPM rejects GAO recommendation to rebid jobs site contract

The Office of Personnel Management is ignoring a recommendation from the General Accounting Office to consider losing contractors' bids to redesign the federal jobs Web site.

On Monday, OPM General Counsel Mark Robbins sent a letter to GAO announcing its decision to stick with the initial decision to award the contract to upgrade the site to Monster.com, despite the watchdog agency's recommendation to rebid it.

"When we put out the contract, we wanted to choose someone on a technical merits basis, not a cost basis," Robbins said Tuesday. "We wanted to make sure we had a partner on whom we can rely, and we are much more comfortable with the reliance factors with Monster.com."

The bidding imbroglio began in January when OPM awarded a 10-year, $62 million contract to Monster.com to upgrade the USAJOBS Web site (aimed at applicants seeking federal jobs), redesign Studentjobs.gov (aimed at college students and graduates seeking federal internships and jobs), and perform a number of other services.

Symplicity Corp., another bidder, protested the Monster.com contract award and in April GAO issued a decision recommending that OPM bid the contract again. OPM asked GAO to reconsider its recommendation, but GAO denied that request in May, saying in part that OPM did not evaluate bids on an equal basis.

"OPM's evaluation approach here created a situation where OPM was in effect comparing 'apples and oranges,' " GAO said in its decision.

According to Norm Enger, OPM's e-government program director, when the contract was awarded in January, OPM was not required to suspend the project until GAO rendered its decision. But in the interim, Monster.com has delivered a multi-million dollar software product, Enger said.

"We continued to work on the new Web site, and what's happened is we've spent $4.8 million," Enger said. "This is an e-gov initiative, it's part of the president's management agenda and with that there are very, very tight timetables in making these initiatives operational."

The large financial investment and firm schedule for implementing the Web site make rebidding the contract a costly option, Robbins said.

"The General Accounting Office recommended that we reopen the bidding process and that really is not practical at this point because we do have the product that we want, and we paid for it," Robbins said. "We could go back to the very beginning and start all over, but it would be a waste of the $4.8 million."

Agencies rarely choose to reject a GAO recommendation, according to that agency's general counsel.

"It is very unusual for agencies not to follow recommendations in bid protest decisions; they follow our recommendations something on the order of 98 percent of the time," said Daniel Gordon, associate general counsel at GAO.

But Robbins said OPM Director Kay Coles James brought in new procurement personnel to review the bidding process and asked the agency's inspector general to weigh in on the situation before she chose to stay with Monster.com.

"We're not doing this out of spite for the system. We have all due respect for the system. But we have an obligation to the taxpayer and to the president and the administration to get this up and running as soon as possible," Robbins said.

Because OPM rejected the recommendation, GAO must now send a report detailing the protest and the recommendation to the House Government Reform and Appropriations committees and the Senate Governmental Affairs and Appropriations committees, Gordon said.

House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., is "deeply concerned" with OPM's decision to disregard GAO's recommendation because it jeopardizes and taints the federal competitive acquisition system, according to spokesman David Marin.

"A flexible, responsive, and impartial competitive acquisition system is critical to the government's need to leverage the best services and goods the private sector has to offer at fair and reasonable prices," Marin said Tuesday after a briefing by OPM officials.

Marin said once the report is received, Davis will review the options and make a decision on how best to move forward.

"Whatever decision is made-special legislation, recission, or something else altogether-the goal will be to protect the integrity of the federal procurement process, which OPM has sullied in this instance," Marin said.

In the meantime, OPM plans to move forward and launch the new and improved Web site in the next few weeks.

A Symplicity official expressed disappointment with OPM's decision and said company officials were exploring other options.