Centech Group, Inc., B-278904.4, April 13, 1998

B-278904.4 Apr 13, 1998 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Protest that agency failed to perform proper cost/technical tradeoff is denied where source selection official balanced technical merit and price and reasonably determined that the evaluated technical superiority of the 11 highest technically-rated proposals warranted payment of the cost premium associated with certain of those proposals. Determined not to make an award to the protester whose proposal was ranked 12th of 18 proposals on technical merit and offered the 9th-low cost of the 12 highest technically-ranked proposals. Which combined technical services that were currently being performed for EIA under 11 separate support services contracts. Since each contract will have cost reimbursement and fixed-price provisions. View Decision Matter of: Centech Group, Inc. File: B-278904.4 Date: April 13, 1998 * Redacted Decision DIGEST Attorneys DECISION Centech Group, Inc. protests the award of contracts to 11 firms under request for proposals (RFP) No. DE-RP01-97EI30000, issued by the Department of Energy (DOE) for technical services for the Energy Information Administration (EIA). /1/ Centech argues that DOE arbitrarily eliminated certain pages of Centech's proposal from consideration and improperly failed to consider price in making the award determinations. We deny the protest. DOE issued the RFP, referred to as the EIA Omnibus Procurement (EOP), via the Internet on July 7, 1997. The solicitation, which combined technical 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 support services (CLIN 001); energy analysis and forecasting support services (CLIN 002); and information technology (IT) 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 will 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 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 and that: 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.