Seven Seas Engineering & Land Surveying, B-294424.2, November 19, 2004

B-294424.2 Nov 19, 2004 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Seven Seas Engineering & Land Surveying protests the rejection of its proposal under request for proposals (RFP) No. W15P7T-04-R-L204, issued by the U.S. Army Communications Electronics Command (CECOM) for construction and related services at facilities located in states from North Carolina to Maine. We deny the protest. View Decision B-294424.2, Seven Seas Engineering & Land Surveying, November 19, 2004 Decision Matter of: Seven Seas Engineering & Land Surveying File: B-294424.2 Date: November 19, 2004 Jamie P. Clare, Esq., Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman, & Leonard; and Frederick ColesIII, Esq., for the protester. Jeffrey I. Kessler, Esq., and Kim Sawicki, Esq., Department of the Army, for the agency. Katherine I. Riback, Esq., and Guy R. Pietrovito, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest challenging agencys rejection of the protesters late proposal revision is denied, where the lateness of the submission was not caused by the agency and the protesters initial proposal was not technically acceptable. DECISION Seven Seas Engineering & Land Surveying protests the rejection of its proposal under request for proposals (RFP) No. W15P7T-04-R-L204, issued by the U.S. Army Communications Electronics Command (CECOM) for construction and related services at facilities located in states from North Carolina to Maine. We deny the protest. On May 30, 2003, CECOM issued a written notice to eligible small disadvantaged offerors under the Small Business Administrations section 8(a) contracting program, inviting them to a presolicitation conference and alerting them that the agency intended to award a multiple award, best value construction services task order contract. This notice informed firms that all future information for this acquisition would be posted on the agencys Interactive Business Opportunities (IBOP) website. Agency Report (AR), Tab L.2, Presolicitation Conference Notice (May 30, 2003). Potential offerors visiting this website were informed that registration was necessary to review or respond to this, or other procurements. See < abop.monmouth.army.mil/ibophome.nsf/homepage3?open>. On February 12, 2004, the RFP was issued on the IBOP website, as a section 8(a) competitive setaside, and provided for the award of multiple fixed-price contracts on the basis of a cost/technical tradeoff. Offerors were informed that proposals would be evaluated under three factors, technical, [1] performance risk, and price, and that the technical and performance risk factors were equally important and each significantly more important than price. The RFP cautioned offerors that to receive consideration for award, proposals must receive a rating of no less than Acceptable under the technical evaluation factor and its subfactors. RFP M.A, at48. Detailed proposal preparation instruction were provided, describing the information that offerors were required to provide for each evaluation factor and subfactor. RFP amend 1, at 5-9. In addition, offerors were instructed that they must be registered users in the IBOP in order to submit proposals and that proposals were required to be submitted electronically to the IBOP website. [2] RFP L.D., at 42-43; amend. 1 at 3. Seven Seas timely submitted its electronic proposal, including an acknowledgment of amendment 1, to CECOM on March 16. In its initial evaluation, the agency found that Seven Seas proposal was susceptible of being made acceptable and included the proposal in the competitive range along with five other proposals. CECOM prepared eight items for negotiation (IFN) for Seven Seas, which among other things, identified three deficiencies and two weaknesses in the protesters proposal under the technical factor. AR, Tab M.2. On June 29, an e-mail notification was sent to Seven Seas, informing it that [t]here are items for negotiation pertaining to your proposal for the Solicitation information below and directing the firm to click on the link in the e-mail to access the IFNs on the IBOP website. [3] Seven Seas was informed that its response to the IFNs was due July 14. AR, Tab M.1. Also, on June29, CECOM issued amendment 2 to the RFP, which extended the proposal validity date from 120 to 210 days and deleted the requirement to submit, and for the evaluation of, past performance information for major subcontractors. The amendment was posted to the IBOP website and requested acknowledgment by July14. AR, Tab J, RFP amend. 2. Seven Seas submitted its reply to CECOMs IFNs on July 27, after the required date for its reply; Seven Seas also acknowledged amendment 2 at the same time. [4] The record shows that the protesters IFN responses would have revised the firms proposal in a number of regards. Comments, attach. H.