Transventures International, Inc., B-292788, November 4, 2003

B-292788 Nov 04, 2003 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights DIGEST Protest challenging agency's evaluation of protester's proposal and exclusion of proposal from competitive range is denied where agency's evaluation and competitive range determination were reasonable and in accordance with the solicitation evaluation criteria. The DEA explains by way of background that its mission of enforcing the federal narcotics laws requires that the agency have the capability to understand numerous foreign languages so that it can translate. One way the DEA intercepts conversations is through court-ordered nonconsensual telephonic monitoring. Technical capability was considered "substantially more important than cost.". Section M further provided that offerors were to submit past performance information. View Decision Transventures International, Inc., B-292788, November 4, 2003 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION Transventures International, Inc. protests the exclusion of its proposal from the competitive range under request for proposals (RFP) DEA-02-R-0004, issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for language-related services in support of the DEA, Miami Field Division. Transventures contends that the DEA improperly evaluated its proposal. We deny the protest. The DEA explains by way of background that its mission of enforcing the federal narcotics laws requires that the agency have the capability to understand numerous foreign languages so that it can translate, monitor, transcribe, and intercept conversations in connection with the unlawful growing, manufacture, or distribution of controlled substances. See Agency Memorandum of Law at 1. One way the DEA intercepts conversations is through court-ordered nonconsensual telephonic monitoring, termed the Title III program. See RFP Sec. C.2. To ensure its ability to meet these needs, the agency issued the solicitation at issue here, seeking a contractor "who shall be responsible for the delivery of all management, supervision and manpower required to perform a variety of language related services including monitoring, translating, transcribing and interpreting services . . . ." RFP Sec. C.3. The RFP advised that the majority of linguistic work would be for Spanish, but also identified more than 100 other possible required languages. See RFP Sec. J, attach. E. The RFP, issued on April 23, 2002, provided for the award of an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract with fixed hourly rates for a base period of 1 year and up to four 1-year options, to the offeror whose proposal represented the "best value" to the government. RFP Secs. B.1, B.2, M.2.1. Section M of the solicitation identified the following three technical evaluation factors in descending order of importance: (1) management plan; (2) quality control plan; and (3) transition plan. Under the management plan factor, the RFP identified three separate subfactors: (a) furnishing qualified personnel; (b) recruiting and retention; and (c) security plan. Technical capability was considered "substantially more important than cost." RFP Sec. M.4.3. Section M further provided that offerors were to submit past performance information, which would be used to assess an offeror's performance risk (its likelihood of successful performance of the solicitation requirements). RFP Sec. M.3. Regarding the management plan's second subfactor, recruiting and retention, section M explained that offerors were required to demonstrate their ability to recruit and retain qualified personnel through various efforts and, by way of example, identified "subcontractor agreements, teaming arrangements and other initiatives to provide a pool of qualified personnel on a continuous basis." RFP Sec. M.2.1. It further required offerors to identify their programs and incentives to recruit and retain cleared and qualified personnel for the various languages under the contract. Under the second technical evaluation factor, quality control plan, offerors were required to develop a "plan for this effort and define implementation of the plan that ensures that the services described in the solicitation are accomplished accurately, capably, and timely . . . ." Id. The third technical evaluation factor, transition plan, required offerors to define a plan for the transfer of the Miami Field Division's current linguist support to the offeror's workforce with minimal disruption to the agency mission and to demonstrate how they will ensure continuity of support during the transition period.