B-297742, Trailboss Enterprises, Inc., March 20, 2006

B-297742 Mar 20, 2006 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Trailboss Enterprises, Inc. protests the award of a contract to GCH Services LLC under request for proposals (RFP) No. FA5240-05-R-0015, issued by the Department of the Air Force for transient alert services and supplies at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. The protester argues that the agency improperly evaluated its and the awardee's past performance and made an unreasonable award decision. We deny the protest. View Decision B-297742, Trailboss Enterprises, Inc., March 20, 2006 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. Decision Matter of: Trailboss Enterprises, Inc. File: B-297742 Date: March 20, 2006 Julia M. I. Holden, Esq., Oles Morrison Rinker & Baker LLP, for the protester. Michael J. O'Farrell, Jr., Esq., Department of the Air Force, for the agency. Jacqueline Maeder, Esq., and John M. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Agency properly considered past performance record of predecessor company of awardee in evaluation where solicitation specifically provided that such information would be considered. DECISION Trailboss Enterprises, Inc. protests the award of a contract to GCH Services LLC under request for proposals (RFP) No. FA5240-05-R-0015, issued by the Department of the Air Force for transient alert services and supplies at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. The protester argues that the agency improperly evaluated its and the awardee's past performance and made an unreasonable award decision. We deny the protest. The solicitation, issued August 4, 2005 as a small business set-aside, contemplated the award of a fixed-price contract for a base year, with four 1-year options. The evaluation scheme incorporated a two-step review. First, technical proposals were to be evaluated on a pass/fail basis applying four subfactors: ability to understand and meet the requirements of the statement of work (SOW), corporate profile/ statement of qualifications, scheduling methodologies, and quality control procedures. An unacceptable rating under any subfactor would render a technical proposal's final rating unacceptable. RFP at 12. Under the second step, the agency would evaluate the technically acceptable proposals for past performance, conduct a past performance/price tradeoff among those proposals--with past performance significantly more important than price--and select the technically acceptable proposal determined to provide the –best value.— Id. Regarding the past performance evaluation, each technically acceptable offer was to receive a past performance confidence assessment rating based on information provided by the offeror and data independently obtained by the Air Force showing the offeror's past and present performance as it relates to the probability of successfully accomplishing the work under the RFP. This assessment would result in an overall risk rating of exceptional/high confidence, very good/significant confidence, satisfactory/confidence, neutral/unknown confidence, marginal/little confidence, or unsatisfactory/no confidence.[1] The RFP provided that –[p]ast performance regarding predecessor companies, key personnel who have relevant experience, or subcontractors that will perform major or critical aspects of the requirement will be considered as past performance information for the principal offeror.— Id. at 13. Ten proposals were received by the September 9 amended closing date. Five of the proposals, including Trailboss's and GCH's, were determined to be technically acceptable under the first step evaluation. For the second step past performance evaluation, the agency reviewed the references provided by the offerors and Contractor Performance Assessments Reports obtained by the agency. In making its final selection decision, the source selection authority (SSA) compared the offerors' price and past performance ratings. This review led the SSA to reject three proposals (for reasons unrelated to this protest), leaving GCH's proposal--rated exceptional/high confidence and priced at $1,803,210.00--to be compared to Trailboss's, rated very good/significant confidence and lowest priced at $1,535,800.80. Agency Report (AR), Source Selection Decision Document, Tab 8, at 1. In analyzing Trailboss's past performance, the SSA noted concerns under a prior contract regarding safety of operations, including problems with accountability regarding composite tool kits, unserviceable fire bottles, and failure to follow technical orders. Id. at 2. In contrast, the analysis of GCH's past performance revealed no known performance problems, and the SSA noted that the firm had been awarded –Contractor of the Year— in 2005 for its support of work at Travis Air Force Base, California. Id. at 3.