Sterling Services, Inc., B-286326, December 11, 2000

B-286326 Dec 11, 2000 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights The successful contractor is required to provide all personnel. Offerors were informed that the agency would utilize a "Technically Acceptable-Performance/Price Tradeoff (TA-PPT) source selection procedure" to select the proposal that represented the best value to the government. That offerors [s]ubmit past performance information . . . that is relevant for the last three years. Sterling's proposal was rated as "very good/significant confidence" under the past performance criterion at a proposed price of $1. NFFM's proposal was rated as "exceptional/high confidence" under the past performance criterion at a proposed price of $1. Noting that NFFM was "performing exceptionally on current TA [transient aircraft] service contracts" at three other Air Force bases. View Decision Matter of: Sterling Services, Inc. File: B-286326 Date: December 11, 2000 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION Sterling Services, Inc. protests the award of a contract to Northwest Florida Facilities Management, Inc. (NFFM) under request for proposals (RFP) No. F08637-00-R-7007, issued by the Department of the Air Force, for transient aircraft services for Tyndall Air Force Base (AFB), Florida. We deny the protest. The RFP provided for the award of a fixed-price contract for a base period of 1 year with four 1-year options. The successful contractor is required to provide all personnel, equipment, tools, supervision and other items required to perform the transient aircraft services. RFP at 2-4. Offerors were informed that the agency would utilize a "Technically Acceptable-Performance/Price Tradeoff (TA-PPT) source selection procedure" to select the proposal that represented the best value to the government. RFP at 23. The RFP explained that under the TA-PPT procedure, the proposals would be evaluated for technical acceptability under the staffing/equipment and quality control plan evaluation criteria, and that the proposals would be evaluated under the past performance criterion as either exceptional/high confidence, very good/significant confidence, satisfactory/confidence, neutral/unknown confidence, marginal/little confidence, or unsatisfactory/no confidence. RFP at 23-24. The RFP stated that in determining which technically acceptable proposal represented the best value to the government, past performance would be "considered significantly more important than price." RFP at 23. The RFP also advised offerors that, although the agency reserved the right to conduct discussions if necessary, it planned to make award on the basis of initial proposals. RFP at 20. The RFP (at 22) included instructions for the preparation of proposals, requesting, among other things, that offerors [s]ubmit past performance information . . . that is relevant for the last three years. Include past performance history and experience on contracts of this type and magnitude with the government and/or commercial market. All available information pertaining specifically to these criteria should be included, as well as any other information the offeror feels would demonstrate their ability to accomplish this project. The agency received 11 proposals by the RFP's closing date and evaluated 6 of the proposals, including those submitted by Sterling and NFFM, as technically acceptable. Sterling's proposal was rated as "very good/significant confidence" under the past performance criterion at a proposed price of $1,704,144, and NFFM's proposal was rated as "exceptional/high confidence" under the past performance criterion at a proposed price of $1,739,498. Agency Report, Tab 4, Proposal Evaluation Report. The contracting officer found that NFFM's proposal represented the best value to the government, noting that NFFM was "performing exceptionally on current TA [transient aircraft] service contracts" at three other Air Force bases, and that because of this, "essentially no doubt exists that [NFFM] will successfully perform the required effort." The contracting officer added that, although NFFM's price was 2 percent higher than Sterling's low-priced proposal, the "superior past performance of the higher priced offeror outweighs the small cost difference." Id. Sterling (the incumbent contractor) argues that the agency's evaluation of its past performance was unreasonable, contending that its past performance should have been evaluated as "exceptional/high confidence." Protest at 2. According to the protester, Tyndall AFB personnel have rated Sterling's past performance as "exceptional" on a number of occasions when contacted by other contracting activities. Protest at 2; Comments at 1. The evaluation of past performance is a matter within the discretion of the contracting agency.