ManTech Advanced Systems International, Inc. (B-422733.4)

Category: Process issue

Date: October 9, 2024

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-422733.4

You should not care.

ManTech Advanced Systems International, Inc., protests Army’s award of a sole-source task order to Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) for a six-month “bridge” contract to maintain continuity on the Joint Common Access Platform (JCAP) project. As the incumbent contractor, ManTech argued that this sole-source award violated the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) by limiting competition. A primary point of contention was whether the task order should include a potential six-month extension option under FAR 52.217-8, which would increase the task order’s total potential value beyond GAO’s review threshold for sole-source awards under multiple-award contracts.

GAO dismissed the protest, citing a lack of jurisdiction. GAO explained that although FAR 52.217-8 allows for service extensions, Army did not consider this option’s potential cost in its award valuation or decision-making process. This left the task order value below GAO’s $25 million jurisdictional threshold for reviewing protests involving DO) task orders.

Digest

GAO lacks jurisdiction to hear a protest challenging the issuance of a sole-source task order valued below its jurisdictional threshold, based on the additional value of the option to extend services under Federal Acquisition Regulation clause 52.217-8, where the value of the option was not included in the total price that the agency considered in its task order award determination.