B-299856.2, RKR Joint Venture, LLC--Costs, December 7, 2007

B-299856.2 Dec 07, 2007 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights RKR Joint Venture, LLC requests that our Office recommend that the Department of the Air Force reimburse RKR for the costs incurred in filing and pursuing a protest challenging the Air Force's decision, pursuant to Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, to perform certain base operating services (BOS) at Keesler Air Force Base (AFB), Mississippi, in-house using the government's most efficient organization (MEO). RKR maintains that the agency should have awarded a contract for those services to RKR under request for proposals (RFP) No. F41689-02-R-0049. We deny the protest. View Decision B-299856.2, RKR Joint Venture, LLC--Costs, December 7, 2007 Decision Matter of: RKR Joint Venture, LLC--Costs File: B-299856.2 Date: December 7, 2007 David F. Barton, Esq., The Gardner Law Firm, for the protester. Gary R. Allen, Esq., Department of the Air Force, for the agency. Glenn G. Wolcott, Esq., and Ralph O. White, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Where record reasonably supports agency's determination that cancellation of a protested procurement was necessary because, due to the passage of time, the solicitation no longer reflected the agency's actual requirements, we do not view cancellation as corrective action taken in response to a protest and, accordingly, do not recommend reimbursement of protest costs. DECISION RKR Joint Venture, LLC requests that our Office recommend that the Department of the Air Force reimburse RKR for the costs incurred in filing and pursuing a protest challenging the Air Force's decision, pursuant to Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, to perform certain base operating services (BOS) at Keesler Air Force Base (AFB), Mississippi, in-house using the government's most efficient organization (MEO). RKR maintains that the agency should have awarded a contract for those services to RKR under request for proposals (RFP) No. F41689-02-R-0049. We deny the request. The Air Force first issued a draft solicitation for this procurement in February 2003, seeking proposals to provide communication and information technology services, multimedia services, and publishing management at Keesler AFB;[1] thereafter, various amendments to the solicitation were issued. In June 2004, RKR submitted a proposal responding to the solicitation; thereafter, RKR's proposal was selected as the private'sector proposal offering the best value to the government for purposes of conducting a cost comparison with the MEO. In September 2005, RKR was notified that further actions under this A-76 cost study had been postponed due to the effects of hurricane Katrina. The cost comparison was not completed until January 2007, at which point the MEO was selected to perform the solicited activities. RKR received a debriefing in February, and filed an administrative appeal with the Air Force's administrative appeal authority in March. RKR's administrative appeal was denied in May. Thereafter, RKR filed a protest with our Office. By letter to this Office dated July 2, 2007, the Air Force stated: –This serves as notice that the Air Force intends to cancel the solicitation that was the subject of the [RKR] protest, has determined not to implement the MEO, and intends to resolicit for the requirement in the future.— Upon receipt of this notification, we requested that the Air Force provide more information regarding the basis for its pending actions. By letter to this Office dated July 9, the Air Force reiterated its position, stating that –the Air Force has determined that cancellation of the solicitation, as opposed to amendment, is the proper course to take for a number of reasons,— and provided further explanation regarding the bases for cancellation of the solicitation. On July 30, GAO again requested that the Air Force provide additional information regarding the stated bases for cancellation. On August 2, the Air Force responded to our request, explaining that the solicitation no longer reflected the agency's needs due to the Air Force's pending centralization of a significant portion of the information technology services contemplated by the solicitation. Specifically, the Air Force submitted a statement from Major General William T. Lord, the Air Force's Director, Cyberspace Transformation and Strategy Office of Warfighting Integration and Chief Information Officer, which stated: The Air Force has embarked on a major transformational initiative to completely overhaul and change the delivery of network services . . . to [a] centralized or enterprise-centric concept of operations (AFNetOps CONOPS).