Dix Corporation, B-293964, July 13, 2004

B-293964 Jul 13, 2004 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Dix Corporation protests the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' issuance of a purchase order to Service Crane, LLC, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. W9127N-04-Q-0020, for bridge crane rehabilitation at the powerhouses at Detroit Dam and Big Cliff Dam, Oregon. Dix protests the agency's evaluation and resulting source selection decision. We deny the protest. View Decision B-293964, Dix Corporation, July 13, 2004 Decision Matter of: Dix Corporation File: B-293964 Date: July 13, 2004 Patrick J. Kirby, Esq., Ryan D. Yahne, Esq., and Richard D. Campbell, Esq., Dunn & Black, for the protester. John Breiling, Esq., and Misty Latcu, Esq., Department of the Army, for the agency. Henry J. Gorczycki, Esq., and David A. Ashen, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1. Where a solicitation states that award will be made on the basis of lowest price among quotations found satisfactory under the past performance/experience criteria, but also includes language suggesting that the agency would make a –best value— selection, including a cost/technical tradeoff if necessary, the solicitation is ambiguous on its face, and a protest of an award made on a lowest price, technically acceptable basis is untimely. 2. Where request for quotations did not include separate evaluation criteria for evaluating the experience of individual key personnel and did not otherwise expressly restrict the consideration of key personnel experience under the corporate experience subfactor, agency properly could consider the individual experience of vendor's key personnel in determining whether the vendor's experience satisfied the requirement for a minimum of 3 years of corporate experience rehabilitating cranes of similar size and scope. DECISION Dix Corporation protests the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' issuance of a purchase order to Service Crane, LLC, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. W9127N-04-Q-0020, for bridge crane rehabilitation at the powerhouses at Detroit Dam and Big Cliff Dam, Oregon. Dix protests the agency's evaluation and resulting source selection decision. We deny the protest. The RFQ, issued as a simplified commercial item acquisition under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Parts 12 and 13, contemplated the award of a fixed'price purchase order. The RFQ, at section 3-7, included language from the clause at FAR 52.212-2, –Evaluation''Commercial Items (Jan 1999),— including subsection (a): The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government price and other factors considered. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers: . . .— RFQ 3-7. Other than price, section 3-7 set forth only one evaluation factor, –Past Performance and Experience.— Past performance/experience included four subfactors: (1) timeliness of services, (2) quality of services, (3) responsiveness of contractor to changes or problems, and (4) a minimum of 3 years experience rehabilitating cranes of similar size and scope. The RFQ stated that the subfactors would be evaluated as follows: All sub-factors are of equal weight, and except for sub-factor 4 that will be rated just Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory, they will be rated as Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, Marginal, or Unsatisfactory. RFQ 3-7(a)(1). Following these provisions, however, section 3-7 also provided as follows: Technical and past performance are of equal importance, and, when combined, are somewhat more important than price. A rating of Unsatisfactory for any factor or sub-factor shall cause the quote to be rejected. It is the Government's intent to award to the offeror who receives a Satisfactory or better rating in sub-factors 1, 2, 3, and 4, and who has the lowest price. Id. The Corps received five quotations by the closing time. Service Crane submitted the quotation with the lowest price. Dix quoted the next lowest price. Service Crane as a company did not have the required 3 years of experience. Its quotation instead cited the experience of its two key personnel''its president (16 years of relevant experience) and lead technician (22 years of relevant experience)''who previously were employed as key personnel in the crane rehabilitation department of a major supplier of crane maintenance and rehabilitation services. In addition, Service Crane stated in its quotation that its subcontractor for electrical work had 30 years experience in the crane business. Service Crane stated that these three individuals would do all the –hands on— work under the contract. Service Crane Quotation at 6.