Vantage Associates, Inc., B-290802.2, February 3, 2003

B-290802.2 Feb 03, 2003 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Agency determination to make award on the basis of lower price under solicitation which provided that technical considerations were more important than price is unobjectionable where the technical proposals were reasonably evaluated as essentially equal. 2. Favorable consideration of offeror's past performance and technical capability in producing item identical to that being procured with the exception of a change in the color of a required coating is reasonable under solicitation which contemplated evaluation of offeror's previous production of the same or similar item. The currently deployed radomes are painted white. While the remainder of the Phalanx CIWS (for which the radomes provide protective cover) and the majority of the ships are painted haze gray. View Decision Vantage Associates, Inc., B-290802.2, February 3, 2003 * REDACTED DECISION DIGEST Attorneys DECISION Vantage Associates, Inc. protests the award of a contract to Raytheon Systems Company under request for proposals (RFP) No. N63394-02-R-4001, issued by the Department of the Navy, Port Hueneme Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center, for the production of certain radomes under a fixed-price contract. Vantage asserts that it has better experience and qualifications to produce the radomes than Raytheon, and that the Navy unreasonably evaluated Raytheon's technical proposal as equal to Vantage's and improperly determined to award to Raytheon on the basis of its lower price. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND The solicitation, issued on March 11, 2002, seeks the production and delivery of 60 search radar radomes, 60 track radar radomes, and related data for the MK 15 close-in weapon system (CIWS), known as the "Phalanx," a ship self-defense system designed to detect and engage high-speed incoming airborne threats. The 60-unit production requirements include first article test units. The currently deployed radomes are painted white, while the remainder of the Phalanx CIWS (for which the radomes provide protective cover) and the majority of the ships are painted haze gray. This solicitation is for Phalanx radomes painted gray in order to present a less conspicuous target. The radomes consist of a coated fiberglass sandwich structure with a foam core fabricated to provide watertight integrity for the CIWS mount while allowing transmission and reception of the search and track radar beams without loss of radio-frequency power, constructed to Navy specifications. The solicitation sets forth five technical factors consisting of: (1) technical capability, (2) past performance, (3) production capability, (4) test equipment and (5) quality control system, and indicates that factors 2 and 3 are equal in importance and more important than factor 1, and that factors 4 and 5 are equal in importance and less important than factor 1. The RFP states that the five technical factors "combined are significantly more important than price," but that the importance of price "will increase with the degree of equality" of technical proposals, and "price may be the deciding factor between two or more highly rated Technical Proposals." RFP Sec. M; RFP amend. 1, Sec. M. The agency received three proposals and, after conducting discussions, determined to award to Raytheon on the basis that it offered a higher technically rated proposal than Vantage, at a lower price. After receiving a debriefing, Vantage protested the propriety of the evaluation and award determination to our Office, in response to which the agency determined to take corrective action consisting of a reevaluation conducted by new evaluators, using a revised source selection plan modified to comport with the RFP evaluation criteria. /1/ Our Office dismissed the protest on July 12, 2002, based on the agency's determination to take corrective action. The agency conducted a reevaluation on October 7, as a result of which the technical proposals were both rated as "outstanding" overall. Agency Report (AR), Tab 15, Source Selection Board (SSB) Evaluation Summary, at 1. Raytheon's total price was $1,621,080; Vantage's total price was $[DELETED]. AR, Tab 16, Business Clearance Memorandum, at 9. The agency determined that because both proposals were rated technically outstanding, price became the deciding factor and made award to Raytheon. After receiving a debriefing, Vantage filed this protest on November 12. Vantage again questions the propriety of the technical evaluation and also asserts that the agency improperly conducted a pure price competition. /2/ AWARD ON THE BASIS OF LOW PRICE Raytheon's technical proposal was evaluated as "outstanding" under four factors, technical capability, past performance, test equipment and quality control system, and as "good" under one factor, production capability.