Terex Cranes, Inc., B-276380, June 10, 1997

B-276380 Jun 10, 1997 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights DIGEST Protest that contracting agency unreasonably evaluated protester's proposed technical manual development program as representing a high risk for delaying the fielding of the cranes to be acquired under the solicitation at issue is denied where the record shows that the evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the terms of the solicitation. Post-award protest that contracting agency's price evaluation improperly included the pricing for some of the protester's "special tools" is untimely where the solicitation and the model contract. Which was to be submitted as part of the protester's best and final offer (BAFO). The protester was required to raise this issue. The solicitation was issued to acquire commercially available cranes with design changes limited to those necessary to meet specified military and federally mandated requirements. View Decision Matter of: Terex Cranes, Inc. File: B-276380 Date: June 10, 1997 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION Terex Cranes, Inc. protests the award of a contract to Grove North America under request for proposals (RFP) No. DAAE07-96-R-X001, issued by the Department of the Army for all-terrain cranes. Terex argues that the Army improperly evaluated its proposal. We deny the protest. The solicitation was issued to acquire commercially available cranes with design changes limited to those necessary to meet specified military and federally mandated requirements. The RFP anticipated the award of a fixed-price, 5-year requirements contract for between 240 and 464 cranes and their associated support requirements. For evaluation purposes, pricing was based upon a quantity of 160 cranes. Award would be made to the offeror whose proposal represented the best value to the government, considering logistics, price, technical, and past performance areas, listed in descending order of importance. [1] The only nonprice evaluation area at issue in this protest is the logistics area's maintainability factor, comprised of two equally important subfactors, manuals and maintenance actions. The Army evaluated the three proposals it received and established a competitive range of three proposals. After discussions were concluded, the offerors were given model contracts, tailored to their proposals, which were to serve as the principal portion of their respective best and final offers (BAFO). The final evaluation results were as follows: Grove Terex Logistics Good/Low Risk Marginal/High Risk 1. Supportability Excellent/Very Low Risk Adequate/Moderate Risk 2. Maintainability Good/Low Risk Marginal/High Risk a. Manuals Good/Low Risk Marginal/High Risk b. Maintenance Actions Good/Low Risk Marginal/High Risk Price $42,655,623 $42,676,623 Technical Excellent/Very Low Risk Adequate/Moderate Risk Past Performance Good/Low Risk Excellent/Very Low Risk The source selection authority determined that Grove had submitted the lowest-priced, technically superior proposal, [2] and that its proposal represented the best value to the government. Among numerous concerns with Terex's proposal, the Army considered its commercial manuals to be so unusable for the purpose of military logistics support that new manuals in Department of the Army Technical Manual (DATM) format would have to be developed. The Army believed that this shortcoming was a "very significant deficiency" because it would significantly delay fielding of the cranes. After it received its debriefing on February 27, 1997, Terex filed this protest. Terex argues that the Army unreasonably concluded that its offered technical manual development program represents a high risk for delaying the fielding of the cranes. [3] Our Office will not engage in an independent evaluation of proposals nor make an independent determination of their relative merits. Litton Sys., Inc., B-239123, Aug. 7, 1990, 90-2 CPD Para. 114 at 9. Rather, we review the agency's evaluation only to ensure that it was reasonable and consistent with the terms of the solicitation. Sensis Corp., B-265790.2, Jan. 17, 1996, 96-1 CPD Para. 77 at 6. A protester's mere disagreement with the agency's conclusions does not render the evaluation unreasonable. ESCO, Inc., 66 Comp.Gen. 404, 410 (1987), 87-1 CPD Para. 450 at 7. The record here shows that Terex's protest merely expresses its disagreement with the agency's evaluation and provides no basis to question the agency's judgment. Offerors were required to provide two complete sets of commercial manuals which were to include a description of the offered crane's maintenance and repair procedures. The RFP advised that these manuals would be evaluated under the manuals subfactor to determine their usability in the military logistics support system, the extent of supplementation that they required, and their availability to support fielding of the cranes.