B-297450.3, Saturn Landscape Plus, Inc., April 18, 2006

B-297450.3 Apr 18, 2006 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Saturn Landscape Plus, Inc. protests certain decisions by the Department of the Air Force regarding request for proposals (RFP) Nos. FA5004-05-R-C004 and FA5004-06-R-C007, for landscape services at Eielson Air Force Base (AFB), Alaska. Saturn asserts that the Air Force acted in bad faith toward Saturn by: canceling the initial RFP instead of reevaluating offers and making a new award decision; issuing the revised RFP as a set-aside for Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) firms; and posting to the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website allegedly "duplicitous" answers to questions submitted by potential offerors. Saturn also protests the agency's alleged failure to take timely corrective action in response to Saturn's initial protest of the award decision under the original RFP. We deny the protest. View Decision B-297450.3, Saturn Landscape Plus, Inc., April 18, 2006 Decision Matter of: Saturn Landscape Plus, Inc. File: B-297450.3 Date: April 18, 2006 John T. Bray, Esq., for the protester. Maj. Lawrence M. Anderson, Department of the Air Force, for the agency. Kenneth Kilgour, Esq., and Christine S. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest challenging certain agency decisions as improper because they allegedly were made in bad faith is denied where the record shows that there is no basis to question the propriety of the challenged decisions; specifically, the record shows that the agency reasonably decided to cancel the initial solicitation and issue a revised solicitation to reflect reduced option periods and changed evaluation factors, and the agency properly decided to set the procurement aside for Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) firms based on the reasonable expectation of receiving two or more offers from HUBZone firms and making award at a fair market price. DECISION Saturn Landscape Plus, Inc. protests certain decisions by the Department of the Air Force regarding request for proposals (RFP) Nos. FA5004-05-R-C004 and FA5004-06-R-C007, for landscape services at Eielson Air Force Base (AFB), Alaska. Saturn asserts that the Air Force acted in bad faith toward Saturn by: canceling the initial RFP instead of reevaluating offers and making a new award decision; issuing the revised RFP as a set-aside for Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) firms; and posting to the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website allegedly –duplicitous— answers to questions submitted by potential offerors. Saturn also protests the agency's alleged failure to take timely corrective action in response to Saturn's initial protest of the award decision under the original RFP. We deny the protest. On March 1, 2005, the Air Force issued RFP No. FA5004-05-C004 for landscape services at Eielson AFB. The contract, a total small business set-aside, was to be awarded to the firm whose proposal offered the best value to the government. The base performance period was April 15, 2006 to September 30, 2006, with nine 1-year options. Offerors were required to submit their proposals by May 2; nine offerors, including Saturn and Hawks Enterprises, submitted proposals. The contract was awarded to Hawks on September 30. Saturn, the incumbent contractor, protested the award to our Office on October 17, asserting, among other challenges, flaws in the agency's past performance evaluation of the awardee. On December 2, the agency advised that it intended to take corrective action, either by terminating the award to Hawks, reevaluating all proposals, and making a new award decision, or by canceling the solicitation and issuing a new solicitation with a call for new proposals. On December 2, we dismissed the protest as academic.[1] According to the Air Force, it received notification of our decision to dismiss the protest on December 5. By letter of December 6, the Air Force informed Hawks of the government's intent to terminate the contract, effective that day. The agency decided to issue a revised RFP to reflect the following changes. After the initial solicitation was issued in March 2005, Eielson AFB was included on the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) list. Although Eielson AFB was ultimately removed from that list, the Air Force reports that concern over future BRAC decisions regarding the base and a desire for greater flexibility in planning prompted the agency to reduce the number of option periods from nine to six. Technical evaluation factors also were added to the two existing factors--past performance and price--and the revised past performance information provided new definitions of –relevant— past performance and –similar size.— Agency Report (AR), Tab 7, RFP at 8-9. The agency also made the determination to set aside the procurement for HUBZone firms.