FEI Systems

B-414852 Oct 03, 2017 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights CTIS, Inc., a small business of Rockville, Maryland, protests its exclusion from the competition under request for quotations (RFQ) No. D17PS00345, issued by the Department of the Interior for a task order for enterprise software support services. The protester argues that the agency improperly excluded its quotation for failing to respond to two Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provisions that were included in the RFQ. The protester also contends that its quotation should have been evaluated as responding to all the solicitation's requirements. 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:  CTIS, Inc. File:  B-414852 Date:  October 3, 2017  James W. Kim, Esq., McDermott Will & Emery LLP, and Alexander B. Ginsberg, Esq., Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, for the protester. William B. Blake, Esq., Department of the Interior, for the agency. Young S. Lee, Esq., and Peter H. Tran, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1.  Protest alleging that solicitation contained a latent ambiguity is denied where the protester's interpretation of the solicitation language is not reasonable.  2.  Protest challenging agency's evaluation of protester's quotation and its exclusion from the competition is denied where the record shows that the evaluation was reasonable. DECISION CTIS, Inc., a small business of Rockville, Maryland, protests its exclusion from the competition under request for quotations (RFQ) No. D17PS00345, issued by the Department of the Interior for a task order for enterprise software support services.  The protester argues that the agency improperly excluded its quotation for failing to respond to two Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provisions that were included in the RFQ.  The protester also contends that its quotation should have been evaluated as responding to all the solicitation's requirements.  We deny the protest. BACKGROUND The Department of the Interior, on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services, issued the RFQ on May 3, 2017, to awardees of the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center, (NITAAC) Chief Information Office, Solutions and Partners 3 (CIO-SP3) Small Business (SB) government-wide acquisition contract (GWAC).[1]  Contracting Officer Statement (COS) at 1; Agency Report (AR), Tab 4, RFQ, at 1.[2]  The competition was conducted pursuant to FAR subpart 16.5, and sought quotations for the management and provision of a full range of application support services for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) internal and external networks.  RFQ at 2, 3.  The RFQ contemplated the issuance of a labor-hour task order with a 1-year base period and four 1-year options, to the vendor that submitted the best-value quotation.[3]  Id. at 2, 30, 52.  The solicitation required vendors to submit quotations that complied with the RFQ's instructions.  Id. at 51.  The instructions notified vendors that their quotations could be rejected if they failed to provide information requested by the RFQ.  Id. at 48.  Section 6 of the RFQ contained FAR provisions at sections 52.209-7 - Information Regarding Responsibility Matters (July 2013) and 52.227-15 - Representation of Limited Rights Data and Restricted Computer Software (Dec. 2007).  Id. at 54-56.  When included in a solicitation, the provision at FAR section 52.209-7 requires vendors to identify whether they have current active federal contracts and grants with a total value greater than $10 million.  Id.