Valbin Corporation

B-416680 Nov 09, 2018 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Valbin Corporation, of Bethesda, Maryland, protests the award of a contract to Leidos, Inc., of Reston, Virginia, under request for proposals (RFP) No. HHM402-18-R-0004, issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for the agency's National Media Exploitation Center (NMEC) Linguist Intelligence Operations NMEC (LION) services. Valbin alleges that the agency's evaluation of its technical proposal was improper. 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:  Valbin Corporation File:  B-416680 Date:  November 9, 2018 Edward J. Tolchin, Esq., Offit Kurman P.A., for the protester. Shelly L. Ewald, Esq., and George E. Stewart, Esq., Watt, Tieder, Hoffar & Fitzgerald, LLP, for Leidos, Inc., the intervenor. Gregory A. Moritz, Esq., Major Christopher M. Kovach, Max D. Houtz, Esq., and Jessica A. Easton, Esq., Defense Intelligence Agency, for the agency. Louis A. Chiarella, Esq., and Peter H. Tran, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest challenging the agency's evaluation of protester's technical proposal is denied where the evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the stated evaluation criteria, adequately documented, and without prejudice to the protester as a result of the alleged errors. DECISION Valbin Corporation, of Bethesda, Maryland, protests the award of a contract to Leidos, Inc., of Reston, Virginia, under request for proposals (RFP) No. HHM402-18-R-0004, issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for the agency's National Media Exploitation Center (NMEC) Linguist Intelligence Operations NMEC (LION) services.  Valbin alleges that the agency's evaluation of its technical proposal was improper. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND The DIA provides military intelligence to warfighters, defense policymakers, and force planners in the Department of Defense (DOD) and the intelligence community in support of United States military planning and operations.[1]  The role of the DIA NMEC is to furnish strategic document and media exploitation (DOMEX) in furtherance of the agency's overall mission.  Agency Report (AR), Tab 5, RFP amend. 2, Performance Work Statement (PWS) § 1.0.[2]  The NMEC's operational responsibilities include "the receipt, forensic processing, screening/gisting, translation, reporting, and archiving of captured, seized or otherwise acquired hard copy or electronic documents and media, and may include preparation for or analysis of such media."  Id. The RFP, issued on January 19, 2018, contemplated the award of a cost-plus-award-fee contract for a base year with four 1-year options.  In general terms, the LION PWS required the contractor to provide all personnel necessary to support the NMEC's operational responsibilities, provide foreign language and content exploitation of digital media and documents, and perform translation services.  PWS §§ 2.0, 3.0.  The RFP established that contract award would be made on a best-value tradeoff basis, based on five evaluation criteria:  security; small business participation; technical approach; past performance; and cost.[3]  RFP amend. 1 §§ M.1.1, M.1.2.  The technical approach factor consisted of four equal "sub-paragraphs:"  translation and other language services; translation project management; recruitment; and startup transition plan and staffing plan.[4]  Id. at 104-105.  Technical approach was significantly more important than past performance, and these two noncost factors, when combined, were significantly more important than cost.  Id. at 102. Eight offerors, including Leidos and incumbent Valbin, submitted proposals by the March 5 closing date.  An agency technical evaluation team (TET) evaluated offerors' proposals using various adjectival rating schemes that were set forth in the solicitation as follows:  outstanding, good, acceptable, marginal, or unacceptable for the technical approach factor; and substantial confidence, satisfactory confidence, neutral confidence, limited confidence, and no confidence for the past performance factor.  Id.