Castro & Company, LLC

B-412398 Jan 29, 2016 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Castro & Company, LLC (C&C), of Alexandria, Virginia, a small business, protests the issuance of a Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) order to AOC Solutions, Inc., of Chantilly, Virginia, by the Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration (FTA), under request for quotations (RFQ) No. DTFT6015Q00013 for services to assist the FTA Office of Budget and Policy. C&C argues that the FTA misevaluated the firm's quotation and made an unreasonable source selection decision. We sustain the protest. We sustain the protest. View Decision Decision Matter of:  Castro & Company, LLC File:  B-412398 Date:  January 29, 2016 Thomas Castro and Gabriel Fry, Castro & Company, LLC, for the protester. Steven F. Pereira, Esq., Department of Transportation, 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 1.  Protest that agency misevaluated protester’s quotation with respect to technical and past performance factors is sustained where the evaluation results are not supported by the record.  2.  Protest that source selection decision lacked a reasonable basis is sustained where contemporaneous record shows that contracting officer selected awardee’s quotation on the basis of its higher numerical score, without documenting any consideration of the basis for the score, the merits of competing quotations, or whether any advantages of the awardee’s quotation outweighed its higher price.  DECISION Castro & Company, LLC (C&C), of Alexandria, Virginia, a small business, protests the issuance of a Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) order to AOC Solutions, Inc., of Chantilly, Virginia, by the Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration (FTA), under request for quotations (RFQ) No. DTFT6015Q00013 for services to assist the FTA Office of Budget and Policy.  C&C argues that the FTA misevaluated the firm’s quotation and made an unreasonable source selection decision.  We sustain the protest.  BACKGROUND On June 19, 2015, the FTA posted the RFQ on the General Services Administration (GSA) e-Buy system, seeking quotations from firms holding FSS contracts under the Financial and Business Solutions schedule (Schedule No. 520) with special item numbers (SIN) 520-8 (Complementary Audit Services) and 520-11 (Accounting).  Agency Report (AR) at 2; RFQ at 1.  The RFQ set forth the required services in a statement of work, and described the scope generally as “assistance regarding the agency’s improvement of Internal Controls and Self-Assessment Activities in Compliance with Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular No. A-123 programs.”  Id.  In response to a vendor question, the FTA further explained that “[t]he scope of work is FMFIA and OMB Circular [No.] A‑123 Appendix-A.”  RFQ amend. 1, attach. 1, Answers to Vendor Questions, at 20.  The RFQ anticipated the placement of a labor-hour order for a base year and four option years to the vendor whose quotation provided the best value.  RFQ at 2‑3.  In addition to price, the best-value criteria had four non-price factors:  technical merit (35 points), qualifications of key personnel and staffing (40 points), socio-economic considerations (10 points), and past performance (15 points).  Id. at 6-7.  Under the technical merit factor there were seven equally-weighted subfactors.  Id. at 3, 7‑8.  Under the qualifications factor, the RFQ provided that the agency would evaluate “representative resumes of staffing” to assess whether proposed personnel were qualified.  Id. at 8.  The socio-economic considerations factor provided for evaluation of the offeror’s socio-economic classification; in effect, small businesses would receive 10 points, and large businesses with significant small business participation would receive 3 points.  Id. at 9.  Under the past performance factor, the RFQ required each vendor to submit information on at least three similar and relevant contracts or subcontracts, which the agency would evaluate using two subfactors:  relevance (10 points), and the quality of performance as reported in the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) (5 points).  Id. at 10.  With respect to price, the RFQ provided for vendors to identify the applicable GSA schedule labor categories, hours, and rates, and provided a labor estimate of 4,860 hours per year, divided among four labor categories.  RFQ attach.