Raytheon Company

B-417524.2,B-417524.3 Dec 19, 2019 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Raytheon Company, of Dulles, Virginia, protests the award of a contract to DynCorp International LLC, of McLean, Virginia, under request for proposals (RFP) No. W52P1J-18-R-0011 by the Department of the Army, on behalf of the Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan, for security assistance training and advice as part of the Security Ministries of Afghanistan Advisory Program. The protester alleges that the Army failed to perform a price realism analysis; performed an unreasonable price evaluation by allowing certain fixed-rate amounts to be attributed to the cost-reimbursable portion of the contract; and improperly issued a solicitation with a latent ambiguity regarding which elements were fixed or reimbursable. The protester argues that these errors resulted in a flawed best-value award decision. We deny in part and dismiss in part 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:  Raytheon Company File:  B-417524.2; B-417524.3 Date:  December 19, 2019 Mark D. Colley, Esq., and Eric Valle, Esq., Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, LLP, for the protester. Paul Debolt, Esq., Chelsea Knudson, Esq., Ioana Cristei, Esq., and Taylor Hillman, Esq., Venable, LLP, for the intervenor. Jonathan A. Hardage, Esq., Department of the Army, for the agency. Stephanie B. Magnell, Esq., and Amy B. Pereira, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1.  Protest alleging that the agency’s price evaluation was flawed is denied, where the protester argues that the agency should have performed a price realism evaluation but the solicitation did not provide for one. 2.  Protest alleging that the pricing terms of the solicitation contained a latent ambiguity is denied, where the protester cannot demonstrate prejudice. 3.  Protest alleging that the agency improperly accepted the awardee’s low rate for a certain labor category is dismissed, where the solicitation contained a patent ambiguity about whether the rate was fixed or would be negotiated after award. DECISION Raytheon Company, of Dulles, Virginia, protests the award of a contract to DynCorp International LLC, of McLean, Virginia, under request for proposals (RFP) No. W52P1J-18-R-0011 by the Department of the Army, on behalf of the Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan, for security assistance training and advice as part of the Security Ministries of Afghanistan Advisory Program.  The protester alleges that the Army failed to perform a price realism analysis; performed an unreasonable price evaluation by allowing certain fixed-rate amounts to be attributed to the cost-reimbursable portion of the contract; and improperly issued a solicitation with a latent ambiguity regarding which elements were fixed or reimbursable.  The protester argues that these errors resulted in a flawed best-value award decision. We deny in part and dismiss in part the protest. BACKGROUND The Army issued the RFP on June 25, 2018, using the procedures of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 15.  RFP at 1-2.[1]  The solicitation anticipated award of a hybrid time-and-materials, cost-reimbursable, and fixed-price contract with a 1-year base period and four 1-year option periods to the responsible offeror whose proposal was determined to represent the best value to the agency, considering the following factors in descending order of importance:  program management, past performance, and cost/price.[2]  RFP §§ L.4.1, M.1.1- M.1.3.  The combined non-cost/price factors were more important than cost/price, but as the relative merits of the proposals under the non-cost/price factors equalized, cost/price increased in importance.  Id. As relevant to the protester’s challenges of the agency price evaluations, the RFP’s contract line item numbers (CLINs) were as follows: CLIN Type Item and Description 0001 Time & materials Labor breakdown.  Fully-burdened labor rate for the positions and hours specified by the agency. 0002 Fixed-price Program management office (PMO) 0002AB Time & materials PMO security services - Labor rate for 150 full-time equivalent personnel (FTEs) 0003 Fixed-price Housing:  per-person monthly billeting rate 0004 Fixed-price Transition in/out costs 0005 Cost-reimbursable Other direct costs.  Offerors to use placeholder figure of $6,377,000 in calculating total evaluated price (TEP) 0006 Not priced Contractor manpower reporting   AR, Tab 15, RFP Price Matrix, Instructions. For time-and-materials CLIN 0001, labor breakdown, the agency specified all of the positions and hours required.  Id., Labor Breakdown.  Thus, for each perfor...