Addx Corporation

B-417804,B-417804.2,B-417804.3 Nov 05, 2019 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Addx Corporation, a service-disabled veteran-owned small business of Alexandria, Virginia, protests its elimination from the competition conducted by the Department of the Army, Army Contracting Command Redstone Arsenal, under task order request for proposals (TORFP) No. W911W6-19-R-0010 for professional and technical system support services for the Army's Special Operations Mission Planning and Execution (SOMPE) program. The protester contends that the agency's evaluation of proposals was unreasonable and disparate, and that the agency improperly eliminated Addx's proposal from the competition. We sustain 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:  Addx Corporation File:  B-417804; B-417804.2; B-417804.3 Date:  November 5, 2019 Lee Dougherty, Esq., Effectus, PLLC, for the protester. Jonathan A. Hardage, Esq., Department of the Army, for the agency. Charmaine A. Stevenson, Esq., and Laura Eyester, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1.  Protest challenging agency’s evaluation of transition plan, benefit/compensation plan, and management plan factors is denied where the contemporaneous record is sufficient to show that the agency was concerned with the lack of detail provided in the protester’s proposal.  2.  Protest challenging agency’s evaluation of the protester’s past performance is sustained where the record shows that the agency applied an unstated evaluation criterion, and unreasonably evaluated the responses provided in past performance questionnaires. 3.  Protest is sustained where the agency failed to perform and document any analysis that considered the protester’s lower proposed cost in its decision to eliminate the protester’s proposal from the competition. DECISION Addx Corporation, a service-disabled veteran-owned small business of Alexandria, Virginia, protests its elimination from the competition conducted by the Department of the Army, Army Contracting Command Redstone Arsenal, under task order request for proposals (TORFP) No. W911W6-19-R-0010 for professional and technical system support services for the Army’s Special Operations Mission Planning and Execution (SOMPE) program.  The protester contends that the agency’s evaluation of proposals was unreasonable and disparate, and that the agency improperly eliminated Addx’s proposal from the competition. We sustain the protest. BACKGROUND The TORFP was issued on March 8, 2019, to holders of the General Service Administration’s (GSA) One Acquisition Solution of Integrated Services (OASIS) Small Business governmentwide acquisition contract.  Contracting Officer’s Statement and Memorandum of Law (COS/MOL) at 5.  The task order competition was conducted using the procedures at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 16.5.  Id. at 1.  The TORFP was set aside for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and contemplated award of a cost-plus-fixed-fee task order with a period of performance that includes a 7-month base period and four 1-year option periods.  Agency Report (AR), Tab 3, TORFP, at 1-2.  The task order requires the contractor to provide technical and analytical mission planning and execution system support for the SOMPE program and other United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) components within the continental United States as well as at manned locations outside the continental United States (OCONUS).  AR, Tab 7, Performance Work Statement (PWS), at 2. Proposals were to be rated under each of the management/technical evaluation factors, in descending order of importance, as follows:  (1) transition plan (to include the 90 percent workforce retention goal stated in the PWS); (2) benefit/compensation plan for workforce retention; (3) management plan to manage the global workforce; (4) past performance with specific skillset applicability; and (5) security clearances of proposed personnel for the specific support locations.  TORFP at 13.  When combined, the management/technical evaluation factors were significantly more important than the cost factor.  Id. at 14.  Award was to be made to the offeror whose proposal was determined to provide the best value to the government using a tradeoff analysis.  Id.