Volmar Construction, Inc.

B-272188.2 Sep 18, 1996 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Protest challenging agency's rating of awardee's technical proposal on the ground that agency overlooked awardee's alleged lack of prime contractor experience is denied where the record shows that the contracting agency reasonably concluded that awardee's experience performing as both a prime contractor and subcontractor on numerous similar contracts. Detailed cost analysis is not required in procurement contemplating award of a fixed-price contract where adequate price competition is obtained. Agency's determination that awardee's price is not unrealistic is unobjectionable where: (1) adequate price competition was received. Reasonably determined that awardee's prices were realistic. Where agency reasonably determined that protester's and awardee's technical proposals were equally ranked. View Decision Matter of: Volmar Construction, Inc. File: B-272188.2 Date: September 18, 1996 Protest challenging agency's rating of awardee's technical proposal on the ground that agency overlooked awardee's alleged lack of prime contractor experience is denied where the record shows that the contracting agency reasonably concluded that awardee's experience performing as both a prime contractor and subcontractor on numerous similar contracts, as well as the excellent ratings by its references and the management experience of its proposed key employees, warranted a highly satisfactory technical rating. Detailed cost analysis is not required in procurement contemplating award of a fixed-price contract where adequate price competition is obtained. Agency's determination that awardee's price is not unrealistic is unobjectionable where: (1) adequate price competition was received; and (2) the agency compared the offerors' proposed prices with each other and the government's price estimate, and reasonably determined that awardee's prices were realistic. Where agency reasonably determined that protester's and awardee's technical proposals were equally ranked, agency properly determined that awardee's lower-priced proposal represented the best value. Attorneys DECISION Volmar Construction, Inc. protests the award of a contract to Omega Service Maintenance Corporation (OSMC) under request for proposals (RFP) No. N68950-95-R-0045, issued by the Department of the Navy for building facilities maintenance and repair services. Volmar challenges the agency's technical evaluation of the awardee's proposal and contends that the agency should have downgraded OSMC's proposal based on its experience and past performance. Volmar also contends that the Navy performed an improper price realism analysis, and that OSMC's proposed prices were unreasonably low. We deny the protest. OVERVIEW The RFP was issued on January 17, 1996, and contemplated the award of a fixed-price indefinite quantity contract for a base year and 2 option years. Under the solicitation, offerors were required to provide all necessary maintenance and repair services for 931 housing units, 22 multi-unit garages, and 15 commercial/industrial buildings located at the Mitchel Field and Mitchel Manor housing complexes in Garden City and East Meadow, New York. The RFP required submission of both technical and price proposals, and provided that contract award would be made to the offeror whose proposal was found most advantageous to the government based upon the agency's best value evaluation, under which technical and price factors were equally important. The solicitation provided that technical proposals would be evaluated under the following, equally weighted technical subfactors: management/procedural plan and past performance. Price proposals were to be evaluated to determine reasonableness and realism. The solicitation also incorporated Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Sec. 52.215-16, Alternate II, which advised offerors of the Navy's intent to award the contract on the basis of initial proposals without conducting discussions. By the March 25 closing date, 11 proposals were received, including those submitted by OSMC and Volmar. From April 1 through April 12, the technical evaluation board (TEB) evaluated technical proposals; both OSMC's and Volmar's received the highest overall technical rating of "highly satisfactory" for their technical proposals. [1] A separate price evaluation board (PEB) concluded its evaluation of pricing proposals on April 15, and rated both Omega's and the protester's "acceptable." On April 16, the results of the TEB's and PEB's evaluations were presented to the source selection board (SSB) for review. On May 24, after reviewing and concurring in the TEB's findings that OSMC's and Volmar's proposals were essentially technically equivalent, the SSB selected OSMC for award based upon its lower proposed price. On June 12, Volmar filed this protest. PROTESTER'S CONTENTIONS Volmar protests both the technical and price evaluation of OSMC's proposal.