Army issues draft RFP for $925M program management contract

The Army's Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems (PEO-EIS) has issued a draft request for proposals for its Program Management Support Services-2 contract vehicle. PMSS-2 will be worth $925 million over the next seven years and will be used to assist PEO-EIS with various tasks in its 42 program offices."We basically are looking for folks to come in and help us manage our program offices, get us through our acquisition milestones, help us review metrics in earned value management, those kinds of things," said Lee Harvey, deputy program executive officer at PEO-EIS. The Information Technology, E-Commerce and Commercial Contracting Center will administer the contract.PEO-EIS officials discussed the draft Statement of Objectives and Section M Evaluation criteria at a luncheon hosted by AFCEA in Arlington, Va., Nov. 27.PMSS-2 will focus on processes and management rather than technology, said Kevin Carroll, program executive officer at PEO-EIS. "We're looking for people in the [project management] business, not necessarily IT network management people," he told the industry group.The contract is a follow-on to PMSS-1, issued in 2001 to BearingPoint and L3/Titan, which expires in 2008. According to Section M, corporate experience is the most important evaluation factor for PMSS-2.This gives the incumbent companies an advantage, said Robert Guerra, partner at Guerra Kiviat. "How much more experience can you get than already having done it?" Guerra asked.The Army, in a statement issued to Federal Computer Week, said the competition would be fair and disagreed with the assertion that the incumbents have any advantage.Organizational conflict of interest will be determined at the task-order level, according to the statement. PMSS-2 presents a potential for such conflict because the contract services may include evaluating other contractors and making acquisitions decisions and strategies.The complexity and diversity of the programs PEO-EIS manages require a case-by-case approach, Guerra said. "It's not something you can handle with the standard firewall at the corporate level," he said.The added potential for conflicts of interest will require everyone to be vigilant in monitoring even unintentional abuses, Guerra said. One step might be to exclude contractors who currently provide hardware to PEO-EIS, he added.The draft RFP anticipates as many as to five awards, two to be awarded to large companies and three for small businesses.