B-298033.4; B-298033.5, American Systems Consulting, Inc., March 28, 2007

B-298033.4; B-298033.5, American Systems Consulting, Inc., March 28, 2007 TITLE: B-298033.4; B-298033.5, American Systems Consulting, Inc., March 28, 2007 BNUMBER: B-298033.4; B-298033.5 DATE: March 28, 2007 ************************************************************************* B-298033.4; B-298033.5, American Systems Consulting, Inc., March 28, 2007 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: American Systems Consulting, Inc. File: B-298033.4; B-298033.5 Date: March 28, 2007 Daniel A. Bellman, Esq., and William R. Wernet, Esq., Daniel A. Bellman Law Office, for the protester. Paul F. Khoury, Esq., and Joseph E. Ashman, Esq., for ManTech Security Technology Corp., an intervenor. James W. DeBose, Esq., Defense Information Systems Agency, for the agency. Sharon L. Larkin, Esq., and James A. Spangenberg, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest challenging technical and cost/price evaluation of proposals for systems and software engineering support services is denied, where evaluation record supports agency's findings and award was reasonably made to an offeror with a higher technically rated, lower priced proposal. DECISION American Systems Consulting, Inc. (ASCI) protests the award of a contract to ManTech Security Technologies Corp. (ManTech) issued by the Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization under request for proposals (RFP) No. HC1013-05-R-2026 for systems and software engineering support services for the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA). ASCI challenges the evaluation of proposals and requests reimbursement of the costs of filing and pursuing previous protests under this solicitation. We deny the protest and request for costs. BACKGROUND DeCA manages commissary operations worldwide for the Department of Defense. These operations are supported with various systems using commercial-off-the-shelf, government-off-the shelf, and in-house applications. The DeCA Interactive Business System (DIBS), the Computer Assisted Ordering (CAO), and Pick Management System (PkMS) are three legacy systems currently supporting DeCA.[1] RFP, Performance Work Statement, at 18. For the past 15 years, ASCI has been the primary support contractor for these DeCA systems and has been the sole contractor supporting DIBS and CAO for the past 3 years. The RFP required systems and software engineering support services for the three legacy systems (DIBS, CAO, and PkMS) to "maintain the current baselines." In addition, the RFP required the development of new business system applications to replace the legacy systems. RFP, Performance Work Statement, at 18. The RFP provided for award of an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract with firm-fixed-price and time-and-materials delivery orders. Contract performance was to occur over a 62-month period, consisting of a 2-month phase-in period, a 1-year base period, and four 1-year option periods. RFP at 2-13. The RFP identified three evaluation factors, listed in descending order of importance: technical and management capability, present and past performance, and cost/price. The technical and management capability factor included five equally ranked subfactors: technical approach, software development processes, technical workforce management, delivery order management, and phase-in plan. The present and past performance factor included three equally ranked subfactors: cost control, schedule, and quality of performance and customer satisfaction. RFP at 71. The RFP stated that cost/price would be evaluated for the "discounted life cycle cost" (DLCC), which was to be determined based on proposed prices, hours, and travel entries that offerors were to list in six separate tables provided with the solicitation. For each table, the RFP identified an "estimated" period of time applicable to that table (which was associated with an estimated phase-in, base, or option period) and the number of hours estimated for various labor categories. Offerors were to input the location, hourly rate, and price for each of these labor categories, and sum the totals for all labor categories to obtain an overall price for the performance period. The total price for each period (phase-in, base, and option year) was then multiplied by "discount factors" identified in the RFP, and the sum of these totals resulted in the DLCC. RFP at 62-68, 76. The RFP was issued on June 16, 2005. Six offerors responded and four proposals, including ASCI's and ManTech's, were found to be in the competitive range.