Shertech Pharmacy Piedmont, LLC

B-412297.3 Oct 28, 2016 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Shertech Pharmacy Piedmont, LLC, a woman-owned small business, located in Kernersville, North Carolina, requests that we recommend that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reimburse it for the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing its protests of the selection for award of Caring Hands Health Equipment & Supplies, LLC, located in Ridgeland, South Carolina, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. VA246-15-Q-0483, for radiopharmaceuticals for the Durham VA Medical Center (VAMC). We dismissed the underlying protests as academic based on the agency's decision to take corrective action. Shertech argues that the VA failed to take prompt corrective action in response to clearly meritorious protest grounds. We grant the request in part and deny it in part. We grant the request in part and deny it in part. 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:  Shertech Pharmacy Piedmont, LLC--Costs File:  B-412297.3 Date:  October 28, 2016 Tenley A. Carp, Esq., Sara M. Lord, Esq., and Eric D. Olson, Esq., Arnall Golden Gregory LLP, for the protester. Tyler W. Brown, Esq., Department of Veterans Affairs, for the agency. Alexander O. Levine, Esq., and Jennifer D. Westfall-McGrail, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1.  Protester’s request that GAO recommend reimbursement of protest costs is granted in part, where the agency unduly delayed taking corrective action in response to several clearly meritorious challenges to the evaluation of the awardee’s quotation, and denied in part, where several of the protest challenges were not clearly meritorious. 2.  Protester’s challenges to the agency’s evaluation of the awardee’s price, technical, and past performance were clearly meritorious where the awardee’s quotation did not meet the stated evaluation factors and where documentation in the evaluation record fails to establish that the agency conducted a reasonable evaluation. 3.  Protester’s challenge to awardee’s status as a small business nonmanufacturer was not clearly meritorious where such status was not a matter within the GAO’s jurisdiction. DECISION Shertech Pharmacy Piedmont, LLC, a woman-owned small business, located in Kernersville, North Carolina, requests that we recommend that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reimburse it for the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing its protests of the selection for award of Caring Hands Health Equipment & Supplies, LLC, located in Ridgeland, South Carolina, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. VA246-15-Q-0483, for radiopharmaceuticals for the Durham VA Medical Center (VAMC).  We dismissed the underlying protests as academic based on the agency’s decision to take corrective action.  Shertech argues that the VA failed to take prompt corrective action in response to clearly meritorious protest grounds.  We grant the request in part and deny it in part. BACKGROUND On September 24, 2015,[1] the VA issued the RFQ, which contemplated award of a requirements-type, fixed-price contract for radiopharmaceutical products for the Durham VAMC.  Id. at 34.  The solicitation was issued as a set-aside for small businesses under North American Industry Classification System code 325412, which is a supply code for pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing.  The RFQ advised offerors that the “Non-Manufacturer Rule ha[s] been waived for this solicitation.”[2]  RFQ at 1.  The solicitation provided that it would use simplified acquisition procedures under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 13.5.  Id. at 30.  Award was to be made to the lowest-priced, technically-acceptable quotation, considering the following factors:  technical, past performance, and price.  Id.  The technical factor consisted of four subfactors:  licensing, location, required software mechanism, and quality assurance plan.  Id. at 30-31.  With regard to pricing, the RFQ price/cost schedule sought unit pricing from vendors for estimated quantities of various radiopharmaceuticals and for the use of a radiopharmaceutical management system to facilitate quality assurance, isotope receipt and administration.  Id.