Techsys Corporation, B-278904.3, April 13, 1998

B-278904.3 Apr 13, 1998 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights A firm protested a Department of Energy (DOE) contract award for technical services, contending that DOE improperly: (1) eliminated certain pages of its proposal from consideration; and (2) evaluated its proposal. GAO held that DOE reasonably: (1) eliminated pages of the protester's proposal, since it exceeded the specified page limitations; and (2) evaluated the protester's technical proposal in accordance with the solicitation's evaluation criteria. Accordingly, the protest was denied. View Decision Matter of: Techsys Corporation File: B-278904.3 Date: April 13, 1998 * Redacted Decision DIGEST Attorneys DECISION Techsys Corporation protests the Department of Energy's (DOE) decision not to award Techsys a contract under request for proposals (RFP) No. DE-RP01-97EI30000, issued by DOE for technical services for the Energy Information Administration (EIA). /1/ Techsys asserts that DOE improperly and arbitrarily eliminated certain pages of Techsys's proposal from consideration and otherwise improperly evaluated the proposal. We deny the protest. DOE issued the RFP, referred to as the EIA Omnibus Procurement (EOP), via the Internet on July 7, 1997. This solicitation, which combined technical support services that were currently being performed for EIA under 11 separate support services contracts, sought separate proposals for 3 functional areas/contract line items (CLIN) consisting of information management and product production (IM&PP) support services (CLIN 001); energy analysis and forecasting support services (CLIN 002); and information technology support services (CLIN 003). For each CLIN, the RFP listed a maximum number of direct productive labor hours (DPLH), specifically, 528,984 DPLH for CLIN 001, 183,000 DPLH for CLIN 002, and 412,920 DPLH for CLIN 003. The EOP provided for multiple indefinite-quantity awards with awardees becoming eligible for post-award competition for task orders for a 3-year base period with one 2-year option. Since each contract will have cost reimbursement and fixed-price provisions, task orders are to be issued on both a cost-plus-fixed-fee and a fixed-price basis. Section L.15 of the RFP stated that DOE would "award contracts resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offerors whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be the most advantageous to the Government, cost or price and other factors, specified elsewhere in the solicitation, considered" and advised that DOE intended to award on the basis of initial offers without discussions. Section M-1(B) reiterated that award would be made to the offerors whose conforming proposals were determined to be most advantageous to the government. At section M-3, the RFP identified the following weighted evaluation factors and subfactors: 1. Business management, technical and organizational approach 50 1.1 Business management plan 20 1.2 Technical plan 20 1.3 Organizational approach 10 2. Past and present experience 20 3. Corporate resource management 20 3.1 Retain labor categories 5 3.2 Additional resources 5 3.3 Staff training and development 5 3.4 Provide automated data processing (ADP) hardware, software, facilities 5 4. Videotape response/presentation 10 5. Past performance Offerors were advised that past performance would be adjectivally rated, and that the technical proposal was significantly more important than past performance or cost, and that past performance was also more important than cost. In submitting a total, estimated price, offerors were advised at section L.34(2) to include a fixed-price quotation for 50 percent of the maximum amount of level of effort (LOE) or DPLH for the total 5-year contract term. Section M.4 of the RFP advised offerors that the proposed fixed price for a particular functional area would be doubled and that amount would be used as a ceiling amount, indicating that this amount would provide the basis for the price comparisons of the proposals. Section L.31 of the RFP contained the proposal preparation instructions for the Technical and Business Management proposal. Section L.31(A)(1) stated that each offeror will provide a Technical and Business Management Proposal for each functional area for which an offer is being made. The provision also stated: All materials submitted shall be in typeface Times New Roman 12 Point, doubled spaced on 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch white paper with one inch margins all around and printed on one side. The Technical and Business Management Proposal shall not contain more than 150 numbered pages inclusive of the table of contents, charts, exhibits, and any other materials the Offeror deems required for each functional area for which an offer is being made. On August 1, DOE issued amendment No. 001, which answered questions from offerors concerning the solicitation.