Continental Service Company

B-274531 Dec 17, 1996 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Protest of agency's evaluation of protester's past performance is denied where evaluation was reasonably based on past performance reference surveys received by agency. That the agency is paying a disproportionate price premium in violation of RFP provisions. That are related to the proposed contract.". Clause M100 of the RFP provided that: "[o]ffers that meet the minimum qualifications will . . . be evaluated based on price and past performance. . . . Past performance will be evaluated using reference data provided by the contractor under Clause L201(c). The Government is more interested in obtaining superior performance than lowest price. The Government will not pay a price premium that it considers disproportionate to the benefits associated with the superior performance. . . . View Decision Matter of: Continental Service Company File: B-274531 Date: December 17, 1996 Protest of agency's evaluation of protester's past performance is denied where evaluation was reasonably based on past performance reference surveys received by agency. Attorneys DECISION Continental Service Company protests the award of a contract to Akima Corporation under request for proposals (RFP) No. SP0600-96-R-0046, issued by the Defense Fuel Supply Center, Defense Logistics Agency, for operation, maintenance, security, and protection services for the government-owned/contractor-operated petroleum storage terminal at the Defense Fuel Support Point (DFSP), Searsport, Maine. Continental, the low-priced offeror, principally challenges the agency's evaluation of its firm's and the awardee's past performance; the protester contends that the agency improperly rated its firm's past performance low and unreasonably rated Akima's past performance high, and that the agency is paying a disproportionate price premium in violation of RFP provisions. We deny the protest of the evaluation of Continental's past performance and dismiss the protest of the evaluation of Akima's proposal. Clause L201(c) of the RFP required all offerors to provide past performance data for the "three most recent contracts and subcontracts held, to include those in progress, that are related to the proposed contract." Clause M100 of the RFP provided that: "[o]ffers that meet the minimum qualifications will . . . be evaluated based on price and past performance. . . . Past performance will be evaluated using reference data provided by the contractor under Clause L201(c). The Government reserves the right to consider any additional information on the offeror obtained through other means. . . . The Government is more interested in obtaining superior performance than lowest price. However, the Government will not pay a price premium that it considers disproportionate to the benefits associated with the superior performance. . . . Award will be made to the offeror who represents the best value combination of performance and price." The agency received eight proposals by the May 28, 1996, closing date, including Continental's and Akima's. A past performance survey was distributed to each of the references provided by each offeror in its proposal. The 20-question survey was divided into two parts. The first part of the past performance survey included 12 questions regarding the contractor's compliance, responsiveness, ability, willingness, training, technical expertise, safety, pollution prevention, provision and treatment of equipment, cooperation, as well as overall performance, in meeting the contract's requirements; each question in this first part of the survey was to be answered with a numerical score of 1 through 3 to represent a rating of unsatisfactory, satisfactory, or good, respectively. [1] The second part of the survey included eight questions, requiring a yes/no response, regarding any statutory violations, issuance of corrective action requests or cure notices, failure to correct, termination for default, equitable price adjustment requests, financial problems, and whether the reference would award similar contracts to the contractor. [2] Continental, the incumbent contractor of the services to be provided under the RFP, provided as its past performance references the firm's incumbent (then current) contract at DFSP Searsport, Maine, its current contract at DFSP Cincinnati, Ohio, and a previous contract at DFSP Charleston, South Carolina. Akima provided past performance references regarding an Air Force fuels management contract at Reese Air Force Base, a commercial plane refueling contract at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, and a construction contract in Anchorage, Alaska.