Monterey Consultants, Inc.

B-414761.6 Mar 27, 2018 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Monterey Consultants, Inc., a service-disabled veteran-owned small business of Dayton, Ohio, requests that our Office recommend that it be reimbursed the costs of filing and pursuing two protests of the award of a contract to Associated Veterans, LLC-Quality Solutions (AVQS), a service-disabled veteran-owned small business of Arlington, Virginia, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. VA245-17-Q-0076 issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for advisory and assistance services in support of supply chain transformation. The protester alleges that the agency unduly delayed taking corrective action in response to a clearly meritorious protest because the agency's corrective action taken in response to Monterey's first protest did not effectively resolve its protest issues, forcing it to protest the procurement a second time on the same grounds. We deny the request. We deny the request. View Decision DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This version has been approved for public release. Decision Matter of:  Monterey Consultants, Inc. File:  B-414761.6 Date:  March 27, 2018 Thomas P. McLish, Esq., and Joseph W. Whitehead, Esq., Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, for the protester. Neil S. Deol, Esq., and Donald C. Mobly, Esq., Department of Veterans Affairs, for the agency. Michael Willems, Esq., and Edward Goldstein, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Request for recommendation that agency reimburse costs of two sequential protests because agency failed to address issues alleged in first protest is denied where the  agency promptly proposed corrective action in response to the second protest and the protest grounds in common between the first and second protest were not clearly meritorious. DECISION Monterey Consultants, Inc., a service-disabled veteran-owned small business of Dayton, Ohio, requests that our Office recommend that it be reimbursed the costs of filing and pursuing two protests of the award of a contract to Associated Veterans, LLC-Quality Solutions (AVQS), a service-disabled veteran-owned small business of Arlington, Virginia, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. VA245-17-Q-0076 issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for advisory and assistance services in support of supply chain transformation.  The protester alleges that the agency unduly delayed taking corrective action in response to a clearly meritorious protest because the agency’s corrective action taken in response to Monterey’s first protest did not effectively resolve its protest issues, forcing it to protest the procurement a second time on the same grounds. We deny the request. BACKGROUND On June 5, 2017, Monterey protested the agency’s award of a contract to AVQS on the grounds that the agency impermissibly downgraded its technical and past performance ratings by applying an undisclosed evaluation factor, and conducted an unreasonable or inadequately documented best-value tradeoff.[1]  Agency Report (AR), Tab 4, Protest of Monterey from B-414761.1 (hereafter First Protest) at 2-4.  On June 30, prior to filing the agency report, the agency notified the protester that it intended to take corrective action by cancelling the award and modifying the solicitation to better describe factors that can impact evaluation of technical capability and/or past performance.  AR, Tab 8, Agency Request to Dismiss B-414761.1 and Notice of Corrective Action at 1.  In response to the agency’s corrective action, our Office dismissed Monterey’s protest on July 3, but AVQS protested the proposed corrective action on the basis that it was not rationally related to the concerns the agency sought to address.  AR, Tab 9, AVQS Objection to Agency Request to Dismiss at 1-2.  On September 5, the agency  responded to AVQS’s concerns by modifying the proposed corrective action.  AR, Tab 14, Agency Notice of Corrective Action in B‑414761.2.  The agency indicated that in lieu of modifying the solicitation, the agency would instead clarify the experience aspect of the past performance and technical acceptability criteria to the evaluators, and reevaluate proposals in accordance with the terms of the RFQ.  Id.  The agency subsequently reevaluated proposals, and again awarded a contract to AVQS.  AR at 4. Monterey protested this award on November 6, 2017 alleging that:  (1) the VA improperly and unreasonably downgraded its technical proposal for reasons not identified in the first evaluation of its proposal; (2) the VA improperly downgraded its past performance on the basis that it lacked past performance references of similar size and scope; and (3) the VA’s best-value tradeoff was unreasonable and inadequately documented because the agency failed to explain why AVQS’s proposal was worth an eleven perce...