ARAMARK Services, Inc., B-282232.2, June 18, 1999

B-282232.2 Jun 18, 1999 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights DIGEST Protest that solicitation provisions concerning projected requirements under a training center food services contract impose undue risk on prospective contractor where quantity of students to be served will vary and option year payment will be based on an actual count of meals served at a fixed per-meal price basis is denied. Agency reasonably may impose some risk upon offerors where offerors are provided with adequate information to intelligently prepare bids and compete on a relatively equal basis. Are defective because they are unduly restrictive. ARAMARK is the incumbent contractor. Contract Line Item Numbers (CLINs) that were to be priced in a variety of ways. Based on the average resident student population (ARSP) for any given week. /2/ Offerors were to fill in blanks indicating their proposed weekly rate per person. View Decision Matter of: ARAMARK Services, Inc. File: B-282232.2 Date: June 18, 1999 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION ARAMARK Services, Inc. protests that the specifications in request for proposals (RFP) No. FTC 99-3, issued by the Department of the Treasury, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) for the provision of food services at its training center in Glynco, Georgia, are defective because they are unduly restrictive, fail to provide sufficient information to allow vendors to compete intelligently and on a relatively equal basis, and impose undue risk on the contractor. We deny the protest. The RFP, issued on January 27, 1999 and amended three times, calls for offers to provide three meals per day in support of center training programs in a cafeteria-style dining facility on the center grounds. The center offers a variety of training programs that range from a single week to 18 weeks in duration, for a student population that fluctuates in size but typically numbers approximately 2,000. The students generally receive all their meals in the dining facility, and many staff members--of whom there may be as many as 2,000--eat some of their meals in the facility. ARAMARK is the incumbent contractor, having been awarded the current food services contract for the center in February 1998. In January 1999, FLETC decided not to exercise the option under ARAMARK's contract, and that a new solicitation should be issued for this requirement because of substantial performance changes that the agency determined needed to be implemented. These changes include: lengthening the specified meal periods; changing meal portions and sizes; changing from a payment system based upon the average resident student population for the month to a system based on an actual count of meals served; and putting into service a scanning system capable of reading bar codes on student identification badges, in order to make the count. The RFP contemplated the award of a contract for a 6-month base period, with four 1-year options. The RFP included, in section B, Contract Line Item Numbers (CLINs) that were to be priced in a variety of ways. In relevant part, CLINs 0005, 0006, and 0007, for food services for the three daily meals for the base period, /1/ called for offerors to provide prices on a per-person basis on a sliding scale, based on the average resident student population (ARSP) for any given week. /2/ Offerors were to fill in blanks indicating their proposed weekly rate per person, on a scale ranging (in 50-person increments) from an ARSP of "below 250" to "3751- 4000+." These CLINs stated that, while there would be no guaranteed student population, "the estimated average number of resident students is 2200." RFP Sec. B, at B-2. For evaluation and source selection purposes, the total amount for these CLINs was to be estimated as 2,200 students times the offeror's weekly rate times 26.1 weeks. The pricing methodology changes under the option years. For each of the option years, the corresponding CLINs (1005, 1006, 1007; 2005, 2006, etc.) for meal services were to be based on a sliding scale, fixed-price rate for an actual count of meals per day. Offerors were to fill in blanks reflecting a sliding scale (ranging in 50-person increments from "below 750" to 11251 - 12000+"), with a daily rate per meal. These CLINs project an estimated count of 6600 meals per day, and set forth the basis for price evaluation and source selection as 6600 meals per day times the offeror's daily rate times 365 days. RFP Sec. B, at B-8, B-9, B-10. The actual count system is described in the RFP in section C.34, which provides that all students will receive a FLETC-issued identification badge with a 10-digit bar code that will be presented at each meal for scanning. The RFP specifies what type of information each digit should provide, stating, for example, that the 9th digit will indicate the category of food services to which the badgeholder is entitled.