Penn Parking, Inc.

B-412280.2 Feb 17, 2016 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Penn Parking, Inc., of Hanover, Maryland, a small business, protests the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health's (NIH) award of a contract to Mid-Atlantic Services Group, Inc., of Silver Spring, Maryland, a small business, pursuant to request for proposals (RFP) No. NIHOD2015062, for parking services at NIH's main campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Penn Parking asserts that Mid-Atlantic's proposal was unacceptable because it failed to comply with a material term of the solicitation. 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:  Penn Parking, Inc. File:  B-412280.2 Date:  February 17, 2016 John R. Tolle, Esq., Barton, Baker, Thomas & Tolle, LLP, for the protester. Richard B. O’Keeffe Jr., Esq., Wiley Rein LLP, for the intervenor. Jason Blindauer, Esq., Department of Health and Human Services, for the agency. Laura Eyester, Esq., Cherie J. Owen, Esq., and David A. Ashen, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest arguing that the agency was required to reject the awardee’s proposal as unacceptable for failing to use the precise words prescribed by the solicitation to represent that the offeror had sent a past performance questionnaire to its performance reference, is denied where the awardee’s proposal instead represented that the completed questionnaire was received by the contracting officer within the time limits established by the solicitation, which met the purpose of the solicitation requirement.  DECISION Penn Parking, Inc., of Hanover, Maryland, a small business, protests the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) award of a contract to Mid-Atlantic Services Group, Inc., of Silver Spring, Maryland, a small business, pursuant to request for proposals (RFP) No. NIHOD2015062, for parking services at NIH’s main campus in Bethesda, Maryland.  Penn Parking asserts that Mid-Atlantic’s proposal was unacceptable because it failed to comply with a material term of the solicitation.  We deny the protest.  BACKGROUND The RFP, issued on October 21, 2015 as a small business set-aside, contemplated the award of an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract, with a 1-year base period and four 1‑year options, for parking services at NIH.  RFP at 2.  The RFP provided for award on a lowest-priced, technically acceptable basis, considering price and three pass/fail technical evaluation factors:  (1) adequate insurance; (2) capability to valet and stack park; and (3) past performance.  RFPat 66. With respect to the past performance factor, offerors were to provide one example of a contract performed within the last three years as a prime contractor that was similar to the work to be performed under the solicitation, submit a past performance questionnaire on this contract, and “request that its past customer e‑mail the completed questionnaire to [the NIH contracting officer] no later than the receipt-of-proposal deadline.”  RFP at 66-67.  In this regard, the RFP also required that offerors include the following certification in their proposals: “[INSERT COMPANY NAME] certifies that the past performance questionnaire was sent to the past customer for the proposal-provided past performance example no later than three days before the receipt-of-proposal deadline.” Id. at 67 (emphasis omitted).  Further, the RFP stated that “[i]f an offeror’s proposal fails to include the aforementioned certification, the offeror’s proposal shall be discarded as unacceptable for failing to comply with a material term of proposal submission, and the proposal shall be given no further consideration.”  Id. (emphasis omitted).  In addition, NIH explained in the solicitation that it would not consider information from a past performance questionnaire received “after the receipt-of-proposal deadline,” but could consider direct or other available knowledge on the cited past performance.  Id. Proposals were due not later than 1:00 p.m. on September 1.  On August 25, Mid‑Atlantic’s past performance reference submitted a completed past performance questionnaire via e-mail to the NIH contracting officer, who acknowledged the e‑mail and forwarded the information to another individual at NIH on August 31.  Agency Report (AR), Tab 5, Past Performance Questionnaire.  On September 1, NIH received four proposals, including proposals from Mid-Atlantic and Penn Parking.  Third Contracting Officer Statement (COS), Dec.