NLX Corporation, B-288785; B-288785.2, December 7, 2001

NLX Corporation, B-288785; B-288785.2, December 7, 2001 TITLE: NLX Corporation, B-288785; B-288785.2, December 7, 2001 BNUMBER: B-288785; B-288785.2 DATE: December 7, 2001 ********************************************************************** Decision Matter of: NLX Corporation File: B-288785; B-288785.2 Date: December 7, 2001 David R. Johnson, Esq., Michael K. Murphy, Esq., and Joshua D. Hess, Esq., Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, for the protester. Thomas P. Barletta, Esq., Peter L. Wellington, Esq., Paul R. Hurst, Esq., and Robert A. Bailey, Esq., Steptoe & Johnson, for TYBRIN Corporation, the intervenor. Kerri A. Cox, Esq., Gregory H. Petkoff, Esq., and Richard T. Trowbridge, Esq., Department of the Air Force, for the agency. Paul I. Lieberman, Esq., and Michael R. Golden, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Agency evaluation of proposals is unobjectionable where it is reasonable and consistent with solicitation evaluation criteria, and adequately documented; protester's substantial, inadequately explained price reduction in its final proposal revision was reasonably assessed as introducing proposal risk. DECISION NLX Corporation protests the award of a contract to TYBRIN Corporation under request for proposals (RFP) No. F42600-01-R-0003, for a mission planning support contract (MPSC), issued as a total small business set-aside by the Department of the Air Force, Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah. NLX contends that the Air Force's evaluation of the NLX and TYBRIN proposals was improper and unreasonable in a multitude of respects, all to the detriment of NLX. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND The MPSC is intended to provide support services for the Air Force Mission Support System Program Office, and combines two existing contracts, one of which provides mission planning system support facility services for the system support facility (SSF) at Hill AFB, and the other provides system support representatives (SSR) services at various Air Force sites in the United States and overseas. NLX is the incumbent under the SSF contract, and NLX's proposed subcontractor, [deleted], is an incumbent SSR contractor, as is NLX's other subcontractor, [deleted]. TYBRIN's proposed subcontractor, BAE Systems, is likewise an incumbent SSR contractor. The instant RFP was issued on April 19, 2001, for a base period award of 39 months with two 3-year option periods that the contractor could earn on an "award term" basis. [1] The RFP solicits SSF and SSR support services on the basis of integrated "best-value" evaluation criteria under which three technical factors, past performance, mission capability and proposal risk, are each of equal importance, and of greater importance than price, the fourth evaluation factor. The mission capability factor includes four subfactors, in descending order of importance: integrated master plan (IMP); operational scenarios; resource management plan (RMP); and transition plan. The RFP contemplated a fixed-price-plus-award-fee contract, and also included options for various unpriced cost-reimbursable and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract line items. Separate submissions for three different volumes of the initial proposal were due on different dates, with the last volume due by June 1, 2001. NLX and TYBRIN were the only offerors that submitted proposals. The proposals were evaluated by a source selection evaluation team (SSET), within which a past performance risk assessment group (PRAG) evaluated past performance in order to arrive at a performance confidence assessment representing the agency's confidence in the offerors' probability of successfully performing as proposed. RFP sect. M-903-2.1.1. In making this assessment, as provided by the RFP, the agency specifically considered the relevance of the particular past performance in order to ascertain how closely the skills demonstrated in the prior contracts match the skills necessary to successfully perform the MPSC workload. RFP sect. M-903-2.1.6. The highest possible relevance rating was "very relevant," for past performance involving "the magnitude of effort and complexities which are comparable to the MPSC requirements," and the next highest rating was "relevant," for past performance involving "less magnitude of effort and complexities comparable to most of the MPSC requirements." Id. After reviewing the PRAG's individual contract ratings, the source selection authority (SSA) assigned final confidence ratings to the offerors. The SSET performed an initial evaluation, which was presented to the SSA at a June 5 initial evaluation briefing (IEB).