Honolulu Shipyard, Inc., B-291760, February 11, 2003

B-291760 Feb 11, 2003 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights DIGEST Protest that contracting agency improperly evaluated protester's proposal with respect to past performance is denied where the record shows that the evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the solicitation's stated evaluation criteria. HSI argues that the Navy's evaluation of its past performance was unreasonable. Award was to be made to the firm whose proposal represented the best value to the government. The past performance factor was approximately equal in importance to the price factor. The past performance factor was comprised of three equally important subfactors: technical (quality of product). If aspects of the past performance were deemed to have some bearing on the expected performance of the solicitation's requirements. View Decision Honolulu Shipyard, Inc., B-291760, February 11, 2003 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION Honolulu Shipyard, Inc. (HSI) protests the award of a contract to Marisco, Ltd., under request for proposals (RFP) No. N62791-02-R-0093, issued by the Department of the Navy, Naval Sea Systems Command, to obtain miscellaneous topside and interior repairs to the Barge YRBM-52. HSI argues that the Navy's evaluation of its past performance was unreasonable. We deny the protest. On July 16, 2002, the Navy's Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair, (SUPSHIP) in San Diego, California issued this solicitation to obtain miscellaneous topside and interior repairs on the Barge YRBM-52 at the contractor's facility in Hawaii. The solicitation contemplated the award of a fixed-price contract for these services over a performance period of approximately 6 months. RFP at 13(r1). Award was to be made to the firm whose proposal represented the best value to the government, considering two evaluation factors, past performance and price. The past performance factor was approximately equal in importance to the price factor, with the former being more important than the latter. Id. at 32. The past performance factor was comprised of three equally important subfactors: technical (quality of product), schedule, and management. Id. at 31-32. To evaluate offerors' past performance, the Navy intended to review Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) ratings /1/ and other existing past performance ratings on relevant contracts. Id. at 29. The RFP stated that the Navy might also review other relevant past performance information contained in local or other SUPSHIP files, or from other government sources, and would consider general trends in a contractor's performance. Id. at 29. Each offeror had the opportunity to provide, in its proposal, any information regarding its past performance of contracts similar to the government's requirement that it would like the government to consider, including additional information the government has readily available, such as data in the CPARS system; information the offeror considers essential to the government's evaluation of its past performance; or explanatory information of substandard or poor performance and the corrective actions taken to prevent a recurrence. Id. at 29r. The RFP stated that the past performance factor would be evaluated, using the above information, to determine the contractor's performance risk. To determine the relevance of the past performance information, the agency planned to give greater consideration to contracts requiring the same or similar type and complexity of work as that required by the solicitation. The agency would consider an offeror's past performance of the following types of contracts/work to be "most relevant": fixed-price contracts for similar berthing barges undergoing overhauls, with work that included tanks, additional decks, bulkheads, piping, electrical, and air conditioning. Id. at 31. Other types of contracts or work that did not meet the "most relevant" definition might be considered, as well, if aspects of the past performance were deemed to have some bearing on the expected performance of the solicitation's requirements. Finally, the agency would also consider trends showing improving or deteriorating performance. Id. The Navy received and evaluated offers from Marisco and HSI, conducted discussions, and received final proposal revisions (FPR) from both firms on November 8. On November 12, the past performance evaluation team (PPET) convened to evaluate each offeror's past performance. For Marisco, the PPET considered the available CPARS data as well as additional information the firm had provided in its proposal. Since HSI did not submit any additional past performance information in its proposal, the PPET considered the firm's available CPARS ratings and other past performance information in its files.