B-400145.2, Ahntech-Korea Company, Ltd., August 18, 2008

B-400145.2 Aug 18, 2008 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Ahntech-Korea Company, Ltd. protests the award of a contract to Kyungil Industrial Development Co., Ltd. under request for proposals (RFP) No. W91QVN-08-R-0010, issued by the Department of the Army, U.S. Army Contracting Command Korea (CCK), for civil engineering services at several U.S. Army bases that serve the United States Forces Korea. Ahntech-Korea principally asserts that its proposal was improperly determined to be technically unacceptable based on a failure to demonstrate adequate experience. We deny the protest. View Decision B-400145.2, Ahntech-Korea Company, Ltd., August 18, 2008 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: Ahntech-Korea Company, Ltd. File: B-400145.2 Date: August 18, 2008 Leigh T. Hansson, Esq., Gregory S. Jacobs, Esq., and Steven D. Tibbets, Esq., Reed Smith LLP, for the protester. Megan E. Stephens, Esq., Department of the Army, 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 Protest that agency improperly evaluated protester's experience is denied where record shows agency properly determined that protester did not have 3 years of relevant experience, as required by solicitation, and experience of protester's parent company could not properly be considered because proposal did not establish that parent company's resources were committed to contract performance. DECISION Ahntech-Korea Company, Ltd. protests the award of a contract to Kyungil Industrial Development Co., Ltd. under request for proposals (RFP) No. W91QVN-08-R-0010, issued by the Department of the Army, U.S. Army Contracting Command Korea (CCK), for civil engineering services at several U.S. Army bases that serve the United States Forces Korea. Ahntech-Korea principally asserts that its proposal was improperly determined to be technically unacceptable based on a failure to demonstrate adequate experience. We deny the protest. The solicitation, issued December 21, 2007, contemplated the award of a fixed-price requirements contract for civil engineering services, including customer support, infrastructure and facility maintenance, physical plant operations, civil engineering support, environmental protection, engineering support, and property management, at six U.S. Army locations in Korea, for a 1-month phase-in/transition period, a base year, and four 1-year option periods. RFP at 3-68. Award was to be made to the offeror submitting the lowest-priced, technically acceptable proposal based on consideration of three evaluation factors: technical (comprised of three subfactors--prior experience, technical excellence, and personnel qualifications); past performance; and price. All factors were of equal importance and proposals were to be rated as acceptable or unacceptable under each factor and subfactor; a rating of unacceptable under any factor or subfactor would result in an overall unacceptable rating. RFP at 100. Offerors were required to have 3 years of experience in facility maintenance for the same or similar services, RFP at 86, and were to include in their proposals a list of all contracts or subcontracts during the past 3 years that were relevant to the efforts required by this solicitation. RFP at 113. Offerors also were to identify subcontractors and/or affiliated offerors. Id. at 111. On January 28, 2008, CCK issued amendment 0007, which advised offerors that –Only Korean companies will be eligible for award.— RFP amend. 7, at 3-4. Twelve proposals, including Kyungil's and Ahntech-Korea's, were received by the closing time. In its proposal, Ahntech-Korea indicated that it was a Korean company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Ahntech, Inc., a small disadvantaged business headquartered in San Diego, California (Ahntech-San Diego). To demonstrate its prior experience, Ahntech-Korea identified in its proposal two prior contracts: a contract for the operation and maintenance of the Korean Training Range Complex (KTRAC), to be performed by the protester from October 2006 until September 2011, and a contract performed by Ahntech-San Diego from January 2000 until July 2007, for the operation and maintenance of various primary training ranges (PTR) within the U.S. Proposals were initially evaluated by a technical evaluation board (TEB), which determined that Ahntech-Korea's proposal was acceptable under all three evaluation factors. Agency Report (AR), Tab 17, TEB Report, at 1. However, the contracting officer, upon review of the TEB's evaluation, determined that Ahntech-Korea's proposal was technically unacceptable under the experience subfactor.