Paragon Systems, Inc., B-284694.2, July 5, 2000

B-284694.2 Jul 05, 2000 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights DIGEST Protest that delivery order and prior contract modification upon which order was issued were not within the scope of the original contract is denied where both the order and the earlier modification were within the scope of the contract as awarded. Paragon contends that the services called for under the delivery order are not within the scope of the Halifax contract and that the requirement should have been competed or properly justified as a noncompetitive award. Halifax was required to engineer. Halifax was required to have qualified managerial and technical personnel available for the "contract and related task orders.". System engineers were required to have "the ability to plan. View Decision Matter of: Paragon Systems, Inc. File: B-284694.2 Date: July 5, 2000 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION Paragon Systems, Inc. protests the Department of the Army's failure to compete the procurement for network engineering services in support of the billet structure management information system (BSMIS) at the U.S. Army, Communications and Electronics Command Technology Applications Office (TAO). The Army issued delivery order No. 47 for these services to Halifax Corporation under the agency's indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract, No. DAAB07-97-D-3001, with Halifax. Paragon contends that the services called for under the delivery order are not within the scope of the Halifax contract and that the requirement should have been competed or properly justified as a noncompetitive award. We deny the protest. The Army competitively awarded the ID/IQ contract to Halifax on March 21, 1997. Halifax Contract, Standard Form 33. As discussed in some detail below, the RFP required Halifax to engineer, furnish, and install (EF&I) systems and equipment including the Command, Control, Communications Computers and Intelligence (C4I) systems and equipment for customers supported by the TAO. Halifax Contract Sec. C.1, at 32. The contract covered project management, engineering, material acquisition and logistics support, system design, equipment integration and configuration management support, operation, maintenance, and on-site support and maintenance. Halifax Contract, EF&I Servs. Statement of Work (SOW), Secs. 1.3-1.3.9, at 2-4. On-site support and maintenance services "entail[ed] the EF&I and system management requirements . . . [to] be ordered on a monthly basis." Id Sec. 1.3.8, at 4. In addition, under its contract, Halifax was required to engineer, furnish, and install a wide range of communications equipment or systems as required by the agency, for example, "LAN/WAN (Local Area Network/Wide Area Network) systems." Id. Secs. 4.1-4.9, at 5-6. Halifax was required to have qualified managerial and technical personnel available for the "contract and related task orders." Halifax Contract Sec. C.3, at 32. Id. As relevant here, the project manager, task leader, and system engineers were required to have "the ability to plan, direct, and administer complex engineering and installation programs involving all aspects of secure digital, analog, and radio frequency technologies." Id. Secs. C.3.3-C.3.6, at 34-36. The computer systems analyst II was required to be able to install software, build databases, and configure software; was to have had experience in configuration management; and was to have performed on-site system analysis, network configuration, fault isolation, troubleshooting, and/or administration of a digital network or LAN/WAN. Id. Sec. C.3.8, at 36-37. The Halifax contract was modified several times. Of relevance here, modification No. 10, issued on August 18, 1999, added two labor categories for the Washington, D.C. area: senior network project engineer and network project engineer. Modification No. 10. These two individuals were required to obtain certifications as Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSE). Each was required to have experience in planning, configuring, and maintaining LAN/WAN systems involving security, shared system resources, networks and combinations of hardware and software applications. Modification No. 10, at 39 (as revised). Delivery order No. 47, issued to Halifax on February 22, 2000, primarily called for a network engineer to provide system administration, system and network engineering, configuration management, technical assistance, troubleshooting, and support for network administration and associated components installed under the TAO BSMIS project. Delivery Order No. 47, SOW Sec. 2.0, at 2. The order called for technical support and troubleshooting assistance for Microsoft software products. The order required Halifax to provide 2,050 hours of technical support from the date of award; an additional 24 months of work would be awarded if funds were available. Delivery Order No. 47, DD Form 1155, at 1 and SOW Secs.