The Army limited a contract to overhaul helicopter engines to Rolls Royce Corp (RRC) based on RRC’s contention the engines could not be overhauled without access to “secret information” only it possessed.  HEROS protested the sole source award claiming the Army failed to properly plan the procurement – it failed to (1) update its overhaul manuals (2) determine if other vendors could do the job and (3) investigate reports that other agencies were successfully overhauling engines using commercially available manuals.

The GAO sided with HEROS noting full and open competition is required unless the agency proves only one source exists;  under no circumstances can a solicitation be sole source when the restriction results from an agency’s failure to properly plan the procurement.  The GAO found the failures asserted by HEROS to be true and hence ruled the sole source decision was improperly based on deficient advanced planning (HEROS, GAO, B-292043).

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