Protest filed over Army Corps decision to keep IT work in-house

The sole private sector bidder on an Army Corps of Engineers information technology contract has lodged a protest after the award was announced in favor of the in-house team.

Northrop Grumman Corp., which entered the public-private competition for about 1,100 information management and technology jobs nationwide, filed its protest with the Corps on July 5, a company spokeswoman said.

The agency announced three weeks ago that the in-house bid by the Corps' so-called "most efficient organization" had won the initial award with a six-year, $447 million proposal that included a subcontract with Northrop Grumman's Bethesda, Md.-based rival Lockheed Martin Corp. Details of that proposal, including the subcontracting plan, are not expected to be released until all protests are resolved and the award is finalized.

Juli Ballesteros, a spokeswoman for Northrop Grumman, said the protest relates to "improprieties in the selection process," but would not elaborate further. She said the company decided to file its protest with the agency rather than the Government Accountability Office because, "We wanted to give the Army Corps the opportunity to correct errors in the process that it may not have been aware of."

George Halford, a Corps spokesman, said the protest was filed with the contracting office that made the award decision, located in Baltimore, and will be evaluated by the higher-level North Atlantic division. According to federal acquisition regulations, the agency must try to resolve the protest within 35 days, and Halford said the Corps will seek to meet that deadline by issuing a decision by Aug. 10.

He said this is the first protest the Corps has heard regarding a competition conducted using a 2003 revision to Office of Management and Budget's Circular A-76, the competitive sourcing rulebook.

This competition was unusual because the in-house team partnered with a contractor in its bid proposal. If the in-house group prevails, then employees will apply for positions in a new unit created to perform the work, rather than go through the traditional reassignment process, which takes into account years in service, veteran status and other preferences.

In a sign that the Army Corps may have anticipated controversy, agency officials announced in May that an award decision was reached in early March "as scheduled," but was delayed by two separate internal reviews.

OMB rules require that A-76 competitions like this one be completed within 18 months. Announced in June 2004, this competition already has passed that deadline. The Defense Department also is limited by law to a 30-month time frame, but Ray Navidi, competitive sourcing program manager for the Corps, said he expects the competition to be over by then.

Representatives from the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, an AFL-CIO affiliate that represents some of the affected employees, could not be reached for comment on the protest. A Lockheed Martin spokesman declined to comment.