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B-416003 May 04, 2018 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Consultech Environmental, LLC, a small business of Cary, North Carolina, protests its failure to receive a contract award under request for proposals (RFP) No. W912HN-14-R-0019, issued by the Department of the Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District for a multiple-award task order contract (MATOC) to provide various environmental services. Consultech argues that the agency unreasonably evaluated its proposal under the technical and past performance factors. 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:  Consultech Environmental, LLC File:  B-416003 Date:  May 4, 2018 Edward T. DeLisle, Esq. and Casey J. McKinnon, Esq., Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman PC, for the protester. Connie L. Baran, Esq., Department of the Army, for the agency. Robert T. Wu, Esq., and Peter H. Tran, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest that the agency unreasonably evaluated the protester’s proposal under the technical and past performance factors is denied where the record shows that the evaluation was reasonable and in accordance with the stated evaluation criteria. DECISION Consultech Environmental, LLC, a small business of Cary, North Carolina, protests its failure to receive a contract award under request for proposals (RFP) No. W912HN-14-R-0019, issued by the Department of the Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District for a multiple-award task order contract (MATOC) to provide various environmental services.  Consultech argues that the agency unreasonably evaluated its proposal under the technical and past performance factors. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND The RFP, issued on March 2, 2015, sought proposals for award of an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) MATOC that will provide environmental remediation services, consisting of, among other things, environmental restoration, environmental conservation, pollution prevention, quality assurance, facilities maintenance, inspection, and energy management.  RFP at 10, 191.  The resulting MATOC was to be comprised of approximately six IDIQ contracts with a total capacity of $230 million.  Id. at 191.  The contracts were set aside to be awarded on a competitive basis to economically disadvantaged small business participants in the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) business development program for a base period of three years and one 2-year option period.  Id. Proposals were to be evaluated on a best-value tradeoff basis considering the following factors:  technical approach, quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC), past performance, and price.  Id.  The RFP instructed offerors that proposals would not be evaluated against each other; instead evaluators would use an adjectival rating system to “assess the merits of the proposal and to depict how proposals meet solicitation requirements and standards.”  Id.  Price was to be evaluated for completeness and reasonableness based on a scenario comprised of total labor hours divided among various disciplines that were priced by hourly labor rate and added together for a total price.  Id. at 201, 258.  Of the non-price factors, technical approach was to be more important than QA/QC, which was more important than past performance.  Id. at 203.  The non-price factors, when combined, were approximately equal to price.  Id. Twenty-five proposals were received by the original submission date of May 14, 2015.  Agency Report (AR), Tab 9, Source Selection Decision Document (SSDD), at 3.  The agency conducted an initial evaluation of proposals, established a competitive range, and entered into discussions with offerors.  Id.  The final evaluation results for the seven awardees and Consultech were as follows:   Technical Approach QA/QC Past Performance Total Evaluated Price LG2-QRI JV Good Good Substantial Confidence $67,579 3E-Plexus Solutions JV LLC Good Outstanding Substantial Confidence $81,646 Delmonico-PKS JV, LLC Good Good Satisfactory Confidence $82,505 Ayuda-ArCADIS Good Outstanding Substantial Confidence $84,728 Northwind-Jacobs JV Good Good Substantial Confidence $90,767 Aerostar SES LLC Good Good Substantial Confidence $93,351 CTI-TPMC Environmental Services LLC Outstanding Outstanding Substantial Confidence $99,325 Consultech Acceptable Acceptable Satisfactory Confidence $85,184 Id.