B-299091.2, AdaRose Inc.--Protest and Costs, January 14, 2008

B-299091.2 Jan 14, 2008 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights AdaRose Inc. requests that our Office reinstate and sustain its earlier protest of a decision by the Department of the Army Joint Armaments Contracting Center not to award AdaRose a contract under request for proposals (RFP) No. W15QKN-05-R-0229, for armaments software engineering center support. We dismissed that protest as academic based on the agency's stated intention, after review of the protest, to set aside the source selection decision and take further corrective action consisting of amending the solicitation, soliciting revised proposals, and revaluating those proposals. In addition, AdaRose requests that our Office recommend that the agency reimburse AdaRose for losses allegedly suffered as a result of the agency's unduly prolonging the implementation of corrective action, and for other reasons. We dismiss AdaRose's request that we reinstate its earlier protest and we deny AdaRose's request for reimbursement of costs. View Decision B-299091.2, AdaRose Inc.--Protest and Costs, January 14, 2008 Decision Matter of: AdaRose Inc.--Protest and Costs File: B-299091.2 Date: January 14, 2008 George Holt for the protester. Vera Meza, Esq., Department of the Army, for the agency. Eric M. Ransom, Esq., and Christine S. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preperation of this decision. DIGEST 1. Protest seeking reinstatement of an earlier protest because, in the protester's view, the agency has unduly delayed taking the corrective action promised in response to the earlier protest is dismissed since any dispute about the selection decision that was the subject of the earlier protest has been rendered academic because that selection decision has been set aside by the agency as part of the corrective action. 2. Recommendation that protester be reimbursed the costs of filing an initial protest challenging the agency's evaluation of its proposal and the costs of filing a subsequent protest challenging the agency's delay in implementing the proposed corrective action that was the basis of the dismissal of the earlier protest is not warranted where the agency has not unduly delayed implementation of the proposed corrective action. DECISION AdaRose Inc. requests that our Office reinstate and sustain its earlier protest of a decision by the Department of the ArmyJointArmamentsContractingCenter not to award AdaRose a contract under request for proposals (RFP) No. W15QKN-05-R-0229, for armaments software engineering center support. We dismissed that protest as academic based on the agency's stated intention, after review of the protest, to set aside the source selection decision and take further corrective action consisting of amending the solicitation, soliciting revised proposals, and revaluating those proposals. In addition, AdaRose requests that our Office recommend that the agency reimburse AdaRose for losses allegedly suffered as a result of the agency's unduly prolonging the implementation of corrective action, and for other reasons. We dismiss AdaRose's request that we reinstate its earlier protest and we deny AdaRose's request for reimbursement of costs.[1] BACKGROUND The agency issued RFP No. W13QKN-05-R-0229 on August 4, 2005, for an indefinite- delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract for software engineering, infrastructure, technologies, and equipment support requirements. The RFP was the first time that ten functional areas representing various weapons system and infrastructure support requirements would be combined into one solicitation. Agency Report (AR), Tab 1, Contracting Officer's Statement of Facts, at 1. The agency's acquisition strategy was to make awards to at least two qualifying companies in each of the ten functional areas. Id.Individual task orders would then be competed between the contractors in each functional area in accordance with fair opportunity competition requirements. Id. at 1-2. The contract resulting from the RFP was intended to replace a number of separate ID/IQ contracts due to end in fiscal years 2007 and 2008. Id. at 2. The agency received proposals from seven offerors, including AdaRose, by the September 7, 2005 closing date of the solicitation. Id.Discussions were conducted with all offerors, and all offerors submitted final proposal revisions by April 20, 2006. On July 26, the contracting officer eliminated AdaRose's proposal from consideration, finding that AdaRose's acceptable ratings in past performance, cost realism, and small disadvantaged business participation did not compensate for its high proposal risk evaluations. AR, Tab 12, Memorandum of Source Selection Decision, at 9, 12.