SWR, Inc., B-292896.3, June 7, 2004

B-292896.3 Jun 07, 2004 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights SWR, Inc. protests the award of a contract to U.S. Logistics, Inc. (USL) under request for proposals (RFP) No. F38610-03-R-0015, issued by the Department of the Air Force, Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina, for aircraft corrosion prevention cleaning services. SWR principally challenges the Air Forces evaluation of its and USLs past performance/performance risk. We deny the protest. View Decision B-292896.3, SWR, Inc., June 7, 2004 DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This redacted version has been approved for public release. Matter of: SWR, Inc. File: B-292896.3 Date: June 7, 2004 Benjamin M. Bowden, Esq., Albrittons, Clifton, Alverson, Moody & Bowden, for the protester. Maj. Jacqueline B. Posner, Department of the Air Force, for the agency. Jacqueline Maeder, Esq., and John Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1. Protest that protesters current contract for same type of corrosion prevention services as required by solicitation should have been assigned a performance rating and carried greater weight in past performance evaluation, is denied where record shows administrator of that contract reasonably determined that no meaningful performance rating was possible because protester had performed relatively small portion of the work under that contract. 2. Protest that awardees performance under contract for corrosion prevention services on tactical vehicles should not have been considered relevant past performance in evaluation under solicitation for aircraft corrosion prevention services, is denied where solicitation language did not limit relevant contracts to those for aircraft corrosion prevention services. DECISION SWR, Inc. protests the award of a contract to U.S. Logistics, Inc. (USL) under request for proposals (RFP) No. F38610-03-R-0015, issued by the Department of the Air Force, Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina, for aircraft corrosion prevention cleaning services. SWR principally challenges the Air Forces evaluation of its and USLs past performance/performance risk. We deny the protest. The RFP, issued June 23, 2003 as a set-aside for historically underutilized business zone (HUBZone) business concerns, contemplated the award of a fixed-price requirements contract for a base year, with four 1-year options. The RFP provided for award to the offeror whose conforming proposal was determined to be the best value to the government, considering past performance/performance risk (pp/pr) and price, with pp/pr significantly more important than price. Under the pp/pr factor, offerors were to submit a description of no more than seven relevant contracts performed within the last 3 years, and were to have references complete and separately submit Past Performance Questionnaires. RFP at 14-15. The solicitation defined relevant contracts as including but not limited to contracts for aircraft corrosion cleaning and lubrication services . . . of similar scope, magnitude and complexity to the services required to be performed at Charleston .. .. Id. at 15. Proposals were to be rated for both performance (exceptional, very good, satisfactory, marginal, or unsatisfactory) and relevance (not relevant, relevant, or highly relevant), which would result in an overall rating of exceptional, very good, satisfactory, none, marginal or unsatisfactory. The pp/pr evaluation was to take into account past performance information regarding subcontractors that would perform major or critical aspects of the requirement. Id. at 15, 16. Eight proposals were received by the closing time, and the agency conducted telephonic discussions with, and received final proposal revisions from, the offerors in the competitive range, including SWR and USL. The agency considered seven SWR contracts in the pp/pr evaluation--four were rated not relevant and three highly relevant. Agency Report (AR), Tab 11, Overall Risk Assessment Spreadsheet, at 1. The highly relevant contracts included a 3-year contract at Kaneoche Bay, Hawaii, under which SWRs performance was rated exceptional, and a 5-year contract at Cherry Point, North Carolina, under which SWRs performance was rated marginal. Id. The third contract, for services at Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts, was not assigned a performance rating. In evaluating USL under the pp/pr factor, the agency considered two USL contracts and eight contracts for USLs subcontractor, Vertex Aerospace. Both of USLs contracts were rated relevant; five of Vertexs contracts were rated relevant, two very relevant, and one not relevant. Id. at 2. Based on these ratings, the agency assigned SWR and USL overall risk ratings, respectively, of satisfactory and very good. AR, Tab 12, Integrated Assessment Best Value Decision, at 2.