Trandes Corporation

B-411742.4 Feb 22, 2016 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Trandes Corporation, of Lanham, Maryland, protests the terms of request for proposals (RFP) No. N00024-13-R-3184, issued by the Department of the Navy, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, for field engineering services in support of the Fleet Area Control and Surveillance Facility (FACSFAC), comprised of FACSFAC air control tracking system and the FACSFAC Navy Scheduling System, located at various FACSFAC sites. RFP, Statement of Work, at 24. We deny the protest. We deny the protest. View Decision 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:  Trandes Corporation File:  B-411742.4 Date:  February 22, 2016 John J. O’Brien, Esq., Gabriel E. Kennon, Esq., Laurel A. Hockey, Esq., Daniel Strouse, Esq., and Charles R. Marvin, Jr., Esq., Cohen Mohr LLP, for the protester. Sharon L. Larkin, Esq., Nick Petts, Esq., and Christopher Re, Esq., Steptoe & Johnson LLP, for Honeywell Technology Solutions, Inc., an intervenor. Keli Norris, Esq., Department of the Navy, for the agency. Gary R. Allen, Esq., and Christina Sklarew, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1.  Protest that an agency unreasonably excluded protester from meaningfully competing when it amended a solicitation (in response to a prior protest) and limited ensuing discussions and proposal revisions to the discrete areas of proposals that the amendment addressed is denied where the agency shows that the amendment could not reasonably have an effect on other aspects of the proposals. 2.  Protest that an amendment relaxing solicitation requirements does not reflect the agency’s actual needs is denied where the agency provided a reasonable basis for its revised solicitation terms.  3.  Protest that limited proposal revisions will result in award based on stale pricing is denied where the offerors have confirmed their pricing well past our decision date, and any challenge to a potential failure to update the cost realism analysis is premature. DECISION Trandes Corporation, of Lanham, Maryland, protests the terms of request for proposals (RFP) No. N00024-13-R-3184, issued by the Department of the Navy, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, for field engineering services in support of the Fleet Area Control and Surveillance Facility (FACSFAC), comprised of FACSFAC air control tracking system and the FACSFAC Navy Scheduling System, located at various FACSFAC sites.  RFP, Statement of Work, at 24. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND On July 30, 2014, the RFP was issued pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 16, to contract holders under the Navy’s SeaPort-e indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple-award contract.  The RFP provided for the issuance of a cost-plus-fixed-fee task order for field engineering services at various FACSFAC sites for a base year and four option years.[1]  RFP, amend. 3, at 3, 79.  The RFP provided that the task order would be issued on a best-value basis, considering technical, past performance, and cost/price evaluation factors.  The technical factor was considered the most important, and included the following three subfactors:  understanding the work, workforce, and management plan.  Of relevance here is the workforce subfactor, under which the RFP required offerors to propose key personnel meeting specified minimum education and experience requirements.  As also relevant here, the RFP identified the program manager and “engineering technician VI” as key personnel for whom offerors were to submit resumes. Trandes (the current incumbent) and Honeywell Technology Solutions, Inc., of Columbia, Maryland, submitted the only proposals.  These proposals were evaluated as follows:       Trandes Honeywell Technical Good Outstanding   Understanding the Work Outstanding Outstanding Workforce Good Outstanding Management Plan Good Good Past Performance Substantial Confidence Substantial Confidence Cost/Price       Proposed $21,359,337.50 $24,063,590.62 Evaluated $27,101,177.80 $27,525,821.91   AR, Tab 17, Technical Evaluation Summary, at 2-3; Tab 6, Source Selection Decision Document (SSDD), at 2. On June 20, 2015, the Navy issued the task order to Honeywell.  After a debriefing, Trandes filed a protest with our Office (B-411742), as well as two supplemental protests (B-411742.2 and B-411742.3).  In these protests, Trandes challenged the cost evaluation of its proposal; the technical evaluation of both its and Honeywell’s technical proposals; the best value tradeoff decision; and also alleged that Honeywell had an unmitigated organizational conflict of interest.  Primary among Trandes’s assertions was t...