Restoration and Closure Services, LLC, B-295663.6; B-295663.12, April 18, 2005

Restoration and Closure Services, LLC, B-295663.6; B-295663.12, April 18, 2005 TITLE: Restoration and Closure Services, LLC, B-295663.6; B-295663.12, April 18, 2005 BNUMBER: B-295663.6; B-295663.12 DATE: April 18, 2005 ********************************************************************** Decision Matter of: Restoration and Closure Services, LLC File: B-295663.6; B-295663.12 Date: April 18, 2005 William B. Snyder, Esq., and Robert P. Murrian, Esq., Kramer, Rayson, Leake, Rodgers & Morgan, LLP, for the protester. Andrew P. Hallowell, Esq., Pamela J. Mazza, Esq., and Jennifer M. Morrison, Esq., Piliero, Mazza & Pargament, PLLC, for LATA/Parallax Portsmouth, the intervenor. Gena E. Cadieux, Esq., Renee S. Holland, Esq., Joseph A. Lenhard, Esq., and Beth A. Kelly, Esq., Department of Energy, for the agency. John L. Formica, Esq., Charles W. Morrow, Esq., Guy R. Pietrovito, Esq., and James A. Spangenberg, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1. Consultants' applications for admission to protective order are denied where the applications agreed to restrict the consultants' activities only with regard to the particular site for the procurement being protested, and thus permitted the consultants to engage or assist in the preparation of proposals for the same type of work at other sites where a party to the protest may be a competitor. 2. Protest challenging the agency's evaluation of the protester's proposal on the basis that, although the solicitation did not prescribe or suggest a particular technical approach, the agency was predisposed towards a particular technical solution, is dismissed where there is no reasonable possibility that the protester was prejudiced by the alleged unreasonable evaluation because, even if the protester's proposal had received the maximum points under the contested areas of evaluation, its proposal would have remained lower rated and significantly higher in cost than the proposal selected for award. DECISION Restoration and Closure Services, LLC (RCS) protests the evaluation of its proposal and award of a contract to any other firm, under request for proposals (RFP) No. DE-RP24-040H20179, issued by the Department of Energy (DOE), for environmental remediation services at DOE's Portsmouth, Ohio site. [1] We dismiss the protest. BACKGROUND The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant is part of the Portsmouth site, and was operated by DOE and its predecessor agencies as "a uranium enrichment plant . . . to supply both high- and low-enriched uranium for defense purposes and commercial nuclear fuel sales." The operation of the Portsmouth plant "resulted in the generation of significant quantities of radioactive, hazardous, and mixed waste," with the activities at the plant causing the "contamination of equipment, facilities, soil, and ground water with radioactive and hazardous constituents." RFP S C.2.0. The contractor will be required to provide all personnel, facilities, equipment, materials and supplies (with the exception of that set forth in the contract to be furnished by DOE) to accomplish the remediation services "in a safe, integrated, effective and efficient manner." RFP S C.2.0.3. The RFP specified that the contractor would have "responsibility for total performance under this contract, including determining the specific methods for accomplishing the work within the requirements of the contract." RFP S C.2.0.1. The solicitation also informed offerors that the contractor would be "required to comply with all applicable Federal and State laws and regulations, DOE Directives, permits, agreements and Orders with regulators (both State and Federal)." Id. The RFP provided for the award of a cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for the Portsmouth site to the offeror submitting the proposal representing the best value to the agency based upon the RFP's technical evaluation criteria and evaluated cost, with the technical evaluation criteria being significantly more important than evaluated cost. In this regard, the solicitation listed the following technical evaluation criteria in descending order of importance: technical approach, integration and schedule; key personnel; experience; project and risk management; and past performance. The solicitation included detailed instructions for the preparation of proposals. With regard to technical proposals, the solicitation, while stating that "[t]he offeror shall describe its technical approach to address all SOW [statement of work] activities," specifically identified four aspects of the SOW, and informed offerors that for these aspects they were to "address in more detail its work processes, methods, and innovations." RFP S L.17.I.