Orion International Technologies, Inc., B-293256, February 18, 2004

B-293256 Feb 18, 2004 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Orion International Technologies, Inc. protests an award to Fiore Industries, Inc. under request for proposals (RFP) No. DABK39-03-R-0013, issued by the Department of the Army for support services for the Center for Counter Measures, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. Orion protests the agency's evaluation of proposals and alleges that Fiore had an unfair competitive advantage. We deny the protest. View Decision B-293256, Orion International Technologies, Inc., February 18, 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: Orion International Technologies, Inc. File: B-293256 Date: February 18, 2004 Kenneth A. Martin, Esq., Martin & Associates, for the protester. Carolyn Callaway, Esq., for Fiore Industries, Inc., the intervenor. Capt. Charles K. Bucknor, Jr., Department of the Army, for the agency. Henry J. Gorczycki, Esq., and James A. Spangenberg, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1. Protester was not prejudiced by agency's alleged unequal evaluation of its proposal and the awardee's higher-rated proposal, where the awardee's proposal had a lower price and the protester does not assert that its proposal should be higher rated than the awardee's proposal. 2. Protest that the awardee had an unfair competitive advantage by hiring a retired government employee prior to submitting a proposal does not provide a basis to sustain the protest where the record does not support protest allegations that the retired employee was a procurement official on the protested procurement, took the protester's proposal from the 1998 competition for some of these requirements, had access to source selection information, or had improper contacts with agency officials that provided the awardee with an unfair competitive advantage. DECISION Orion International Technologies, Inc. protests an award to Fiore Industries, Inc. under request for proposals (RFP) No. DABK39-03-R-0013, issued by the Department of the Army for support services for the Center for Counter Measures, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. Orion protests the agency's evaluation of proposals and alleges that Fiore had an unfair competitive advantage. We deny the protest. The RFP, issued as a small business set-aside on September 19, 2003, solicited proposals for support services to include providing a core staff of multi-disciplined engineers, scientists and analysts to perform susceptibility and vulnerability analyses of precision guided weapon systems and related components; to serve as subject matter experts in the broad spectrum of precision guided weapon systems, countermeasures, and conduct of operational training and exercises; and to provide support throughout the planning, coordination and execution of countermeasure testing, training and exercises. The RFP contemplated the award of a fixed-price, award-fee/award-term contract (with reimbursable line items for surge support and travel) for a base period of 3 years with 12 option years. Award was to be made on a –best value— basis considering the factors of technical/management and price, with technical/management being considerably more important than price. The RFP stated the following four subfactors under technical/management listed in descending order of importance: (1) overall mission understanding, (2) proposed management plan, (3) quality assurance, and (4) sample tasks. Offerors were to present oral technical/management proposals, which was done in October. The agency evaluated the oral proposals using a color/adjectival rating scale. The agency rated Fiore's proposal higher than Orion's under each of the first three technical/management subfactors and rated both the same under the fourth subfactor. Fiore's proposed price was almost $2 million lower than Orion's. The source selection authority (SSA) considered the evaluation, including the apparent advantages and disadvantages of the two proposals, and determined that Fiore's higher-rated, lower-priced proposal represented the best value to the government. On November 5, the agency awarded the contract to Fiore. Following a debriefing, Orion filed this protest. Orion alleges that the agency's technical evaluation treated offerors unequally, and that Fiore had an unfair competitive advantage arising from the firm's employment of a recently retired agency employee.[1] In alleging unequal treatment, the protester makes various contentions concerning the evaluation of its and the awardee's proposals under most of the technical evaluation subfactors.