B-310970; B-310970.2, Brian X. Scott, March 26, 2008

B-310970; B-310970.2, Brian X. Scott, March 26, 2008 TITLE: B-310970; B-310970.2, Brian X. Scott, March 26, 2008 BNUMBER: B-310970; B-310970.2 DATE: March 26, 2008 **************************************************** B-310970; B-310970.2, Brian X. Scott, March 26, 2008 Decision Matter of: Brian X. Scott File: B-310970; B-310970.2 Date: March 26, 2008 Brian X. Scott for the protester. Capt. John J. Cho and Col. David P. Harney, Department of the Army, for the agency. Guy R. Pietrovito, Esq., and James A. Spangenberg, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST In a negotiated procurement, agency had a reasonable basis to cancel, after receipt of proposals, a solicitation for executive agent services, where the agency reasonably found that it would be more advantageous to satisfy its requirements through an existing contract. DECISION Brian X. Scott protests the cancellation of request for proposals (RFP) No. W91GDW-08-R-4006, issued by the Joint Contracting Command-Iraq/Afghanistan (JJC-I/A) for executive agent services for the Iraqi-Based Industrial Zone (I-BIZ) program. Mr. Scott complains that the cancellation of the RFP after receipt of proposals was unreasonable and was the result of bias against him. We deny the protest. The RFP provided for the award of a contract for an executive agent to oversee the I-BIZ program at the Victory Base Complex in Baghdad, Iraq, for a 6-month base period with five 6-month option periods. The I-BIZ program was established to implement the agency's "Iraqi First" program, under which multi-national forces were to use available Iraqi businesses, services and products, whenever possible.[1] RFP, Statement of Work (SOW), para. 2.0. It is the aim of the Iraqi First and I-BIZ programs to obtain various services, such as repair and cleaning services, from Iraqi vendors for United States and coalition forces. Offerors were informed that the I-BIZ executive agent would provide facilitation, consultation, and liaison support services for the I-BIZ program, and that [t]his will consist of providing expert advice, assistance, and guidance on establishing I-BIZ Iniatives for [Multi-National Forces - Iraq], as well as identifying Iraqi candidate businesses and labor for I-BIZ initiatives. In addition, the executive agent would "submit advisory suggestions when necessary with policy recommendation to ensure theater wide requirements are integrated and synchronized with current and future theater level operations." RFP, SOW, para. 3.0. The executive agent was required to, at a minimum, be bilingual in English and Arabic, have a secret security clearance, and 2 years of experience working with business development projects in developing nations. Id. para. 5.0. The agency received three proposals, including Mr. Scott's, by the November 23 closing date for receipt of proposals. Mr. Scott's and another offeror's proposal were transmitted for evaluation to the Resources and Sustainment, Sustainment and Fusion Directorate of the Multi-National Force-Iraq, the requiring activity for the RFP.[2] Prior to the requiring activity's receipt of the proposals for evaluation, the activity became aware of an existing JJC-I/A contract for Bilingual, Bicultural Advisor-Subject Matter Expert (BBA-SME) services, under which the I-BIZ executive agent might be obtained. The activity considered the use of the BBA-SME contract, but also evaluated Mr. Scott's and the other offeror's proposals. Agency Report (AR), Tab 15, Statement of Contracting Action Officer on the Deputy Chief of Staff, Resources and Sustainment, Sustainment Fusion Directorate of the Multi-National Force-Iraq. The requiring activity found both proposals to be deficient in a number of respects. With respect to Mr. Scott's proposal, the requiring activity found that he did not provide personnel experienced in accomplishing the requirement, did not have prior experience in accomplishing the requirement, did not have the desired Arabic language skills, had too much turnover of key personnel to establish the long term relationships anticipated in the requirement, and only had an interim secret security clearance. Contracting Officer's Statement at 2. The agency concluded that the services solicited by the RFP could be satisfied under the existing BBA-SME contract and that, in fact, "the requiring activity was attempting to satisfy the I-BIZ requirement using both the I-BIZ solicitation and the BBA-SME contract." AR at 3. The agency decided, after its evaluation of Mr. Scott's and the other offeror's proposal, that satisfying this requirement under the BBA-SME contract would be more advantageous than continuing under the RFP.