Gunter Construction, Inc.

B-412039 Nov 30, 2015 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Gunter Construction, Inc., of Sulphur, Louisiana, a small business, protests the award of a contract to Keiland Construction, LLC, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, by the Department of the Army, Mission and Installation Contracting Command, under request for proposals (RFP) No. W91247-15-R-0004, for construction services at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Gunter argues that the Army improperly failed to evaluate its final proposal revision (FPR), and awarded the contract to Keiland at a higher price. 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:  Gunter Construction, Inc. File:  B-412039 Date:  November 30, 2015 Christopher Solop, Esq., and Lynn Patton Thompson, Esq., Biggs, Ingram & Solop, PLLC, for the protester. Steven J. Koprince, Esq., Matthew T. Schoonover, Esq., and Matthew P. Moriarty, Esq., Koprince Law LLC, for Keiland Construction, LLC, the intervenor. Scott N. Flesch, Esq., and Frank A. March, Esq., Department of the Army, for the agency. Paul N. Wengert, Esq., and Tania Calhoun, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest that agency improperly failed to evaluate protester’s final proposal revision is denied where discussions letter directed protester to use agency’s online tool to submit its final proposal revision as an electronic document, and to provide notice to two e-mail addresses, but protester only successfully notified one recipient, who did not retrieve the document, and the agency’s security protocol automatically subsequently destroyed the document.  DECISION Gunter Construction, Inc., of Sulphur, Louisiana, a small business, protests the award of a contract to Keiland Construction, LLC, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, by the Department of the Army, Mission and Installation Contracting Command, under request for proposals (RFP) No. W91247-15-R-0004, for construction services at Fort Polk, Louisiana.  Gunter argues that the Army improperly failed to evaluate its final proposal revision (FPR), and awarded the contract to Keiland at a higher price.  We deny the protest.  The Army issued the RFP on February 27, 2015, seeking proposals for a job order contract (JOC) for the “[s]ustainment, [r]estoration and [m]odernization of [p]ost[‑w]ide [c]onstruction [e]fforts of real property facilities located at Fort Polk . . . .”  RFP at 1.  Competition was limited to participants in the Small Business Administration (SBA) section 8(a) program that were located within the Louisiana SBA district.  Id. at 1, 76, 89-90.  The Army was to award a single indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for a base year and two option years to the firm submitting the lowest-priced technically acceptable proposal.  RFP at 118.  The RFP stated that initial proposals were to be submitted using a secure electronic system called AMRDEC SAFE.[1]  To use this system, the offeror was required to upload its proposal and then enter an e-mail address for each individual to whom automated e-mail notifications were to be sent.  The system then would send an e‑mail notification to the intended recipient(s), stating that the document was available to be downloaded from the AMRDEC SAFE system, and providing a unique 1-time-use password within 14 days.[2]  The Army received initial proposals from Gunter, Keiland, and three other firms.  Agency Report (AR) at 5.[3] The initial evaluation concluded that Gunter submitted an acceptable proposal at the lowest evaluated price of $16.7 million.  Keiland’s proposal was rated unacceptable, with an evaluated price of $17.5 million.  However, the Army did not award a contract based on the initial proposals but, instead, issued amendment 3 to the RFP and held discussions with all five offerors.  Much of amendment 3 repeated sections of the RFP verbatim, but it also revised all performance dates outward three months to conform to a new expected contract award date of September 1, 2015.  AR at 5; RFP amend. 3 at 28-30.  The proposal submission instructions in amendment 3 also changed the e-mail addresses to which AMRDEC SAFE notifications were to be sent.  The addresses were listed in lowercase type in the Times New Roman font, and appeared essentially[4] as follows:  [firstname].l.[lastname]12.civ@mail.mil and [firstname].z.[lastname].civ@mail.mil RFP amend. 3 at 61. On the same day the agency issued amendment 3, the contracting officer issued a discussions letter to each offeror.  The letter directed the offeror to submit its FPR through the AMRDEC SAFE system by August 5, with notification to two e-mail addresses, and stated that “[n]o other recipients should be specified.”  Id. at 6; Protest attach.