Lilly Timber Services

B-411435.2 Aug 05, 2015 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Lilly Timber Services, a small business, of Mode, Illinois, protests the award of contracts to Roepke & Niemerg Tree & Conservation Service (R&N), of Effingham, Illinois; Higgins Outdoors, Inc., of Gays, Illinois; and Midwest Seedling Supply, Inc. (MSS), of Meredosia, Illinois, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. AG-5A12-S-15-0001, issued by the Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), for tree planting services in Illinois. Lilly Timber challenges the agency's evaluation of its price. We sustain the protest. We sustain the protest. View Decision Decision Matter of: Lilly Timber Services File: B-411435.2 Date: August 5, 2015 Blake Lilly, for the protester. Elin M. Dugan, Esq., Department of Agriculture, for the agency. Joshua R. Gillerman, Noah B. Bleicher, Esq., and Nora K. Adkins, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Under solicitation calling for award of fixed-price contract, protest challenging agency’s conclusion that protester’s low prices created a risk of unsuccessful performance is sustained where solicitation lacked any evaluation criteria that reasonably would have put vendors on notice that the agency intended to consider the realism of vendors’ prices. DECISION Lilly Timber Services, a small business, of Mode, Illinois, protests the award of contracts to Roepke & Niemerg Tree & Conservation Service (R&N), of Effingham, Illinois; Higgins Outdoors, Inc., of Gays, Illinois; and Midwest Seedling Supply, Inc. (MSS), of Meredosia, Illinois, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. AG-5A12-S-15-0001, issued by the Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), for tree planting services in Illinois. Lilly Timber challenges the agency’s evaluation of its price. We sustain the protest. BACKGROUND NRCS posted the RFQ on March 9, 2015, as a combined synopsis/solicitation under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 12.6. The RFQ, which was set aside for small businesses, contemplated the award of up to six fixed-price contracts for six separate projects entailing bare-root seedling planting services in four counties in Illinois. RFQ at 1-2. The RFQ permitted vendors to submit quotations for any number of projects and provided that the project awards would be made to the “lowest reasonable price and responsive/responsible (past performance) [vendor].” Id. According to the solicitation, past performance was considered equal in weight to price. Id. The solicitation stated that the contractor was to provide all labor, materials, and equipment necessary to perform the tree planting on plots of land ranging from approximately 50 to 229 acres. Id. at 1. As relevant here, projects 3-5 sought to accomplish bottomland and upland hardwood reforestation and restoration on three separate sites, ranging from 94.4 acres to 228.9 acres, in White County, Illinois.[1] Id. at 3. The RFQ advised vendors that the government estimate for projects 3 and 4 was between $25,000 and $100,000, and the estimate for project 5 was between $100,000 and $150,000. Id. On March 25, the agency received six quotations for projects 3 and 4, and five quotations for project 5, including quotations from Lilly Timber. Contracting Officer (CO) Statement at 2. On April 3, the agency awarded the contracts for projects 3-5 to R&N, Higgins, and MSS, respectively. Id. On April 15, Lilly Timber protested these awards, and on April 22, NRCS advised our Office that it would take corrective action and conduct a reevaluation of the quotations for these projects. Based on the agency’s corrective action, we dismissed Lilly Timber’s protest. Lilly Timber Servs., B‑411435, Apr. 22, 2015. As part of its reevaluation, the CO reviewed the vendor’s prices and assigned each a rating of reasonable, risky, or unreasonably (low or high) based upon how far the price deviated from the agency’s price estimate. Agency Report (AR), Tab 5, Source Selection Decisions (Projects 3-5), at 26, 29, 32. A reasonable rating was assigned to prices that were within 15 percent of the government’s estimate; a risky rating was assessed to prices that were between 16 and 30 percent of the estimate; and a rating of unreasonably low or high was assigned to prices that varied more than 31 percent from the estimate. Id. With respect to project 3, the CO rated Lilly Timber’s price risky because it was 30 percent below the government estimate. Id. at 27. For projects 4 and 5, the CO deemed Lilly Timber’s prices unreasonably low because the prices were 31 percent below and 35 percent below the government estimate, respectively. Id. at 30, 32. In making the award determinations, the CO concluded that Lilly Timber’s prices “created a risk of unsatisfactory performance.” AR, Tab 3, Notice of Unsuccessful Quotation, 7-9.