Southern Aire Contracting, Inc. (W911SF-18-R-0022)

B-418070.4,B-418070.5 May 08, 2020 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights HCR Construction, Inc., of Norcross, Georgia, and Southern Aire Contracting, Inc. (SAC), of Jacksonville, Florida, protest their nonselection for award of a contract under request for proposals (RFP) No. W911SF-18-R-0022, issued by the Department of the Army for repair and construction services at Fort Benning, Georgia. The protesters contend that the agency's evaluation of proposals and the resulting award decision were improper. We deny the protests. 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:  HCR Construction, Inc.; Southern Aire Contracting, Inc. File:  B-418070.4; B-418070.5 Date:  May 8, 2020 Kevin P. Mullen, Esq., and Lyle F. Hedgecock, Esq., Morrison & Foerster LLC, for HCR Construction, Inc.; and Benjamin S. Lowenthal, Esq., Hendrick Phillips Salzman & Siegel PC, for Southern Aire Contracting, Inc., the protesters. Major Mark T. Robinson, Robert B. Neill, Esq., and Scott N. Flesch, Esq., Department of the Army, 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 Protests challenging the agency’s evaluation of awardees’ technical proposals are denied where the evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the stated evaluation criteria. DECISION   HCR Construction, Inc., of Norcross, Georgia, and Southern Aire Contracting, Inc. (SAC), of Jacksonville, Florida, protest their nonselection for award of a contract under request for proposals (RFP) No. W911SF-18-R-0022, issued by the Department of the Army for repair and construction services at Fort Benning, Georgia.  The protesters contend that the agency’s evaluation of proposals and the resulting award decision were improper. We deny the protests. BACKGROUND The RFP was issued on April 29, 2019, as a small business set-aside, pursuant to the procedures of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 15.  Agency Report (AR) Tab 4, RFP at 1.[1]  The solicitation contemplated the award of five indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts--under which fixed-price task orders would subsequently be placed--for a 5-year ordering period.[2]  Id. at 1, 40.  In general terms, contractors were to provide all necessary labor, equipment, supplies, and supervision to successfully perform task orders for the maintenance, repair, and alteration of facilities located at Fort Benning, Georgia; the Army Ranger School at Camp Frank D. Merrill, Dahlonega, Georgia, and Camp James E. Rudder, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida; and the Destin Army Recreation Center, Destin, Florida.  AR, Tab 5, Statement of Work (SOW) at 1.  The RFP established that contract awards would be made on a lowest-price, technically acceptable (LPTA) basis, based on three evaluation factors--technical acceptability, past performance, and price.[3]  AR, Tab 8, RFP amend. 3 at 2-3.  The technical acceptability factor consisted of five subfactors:  construction experience; design/build experience; management approach; seed project response; and bonding capacity.  Id. Thirty-three offerors, including HCR and SAC, submitted proposals by the June 27 closing date.  The agency evaluated proposals and, on September 16, issued a small business preaward notice to seven offerors, including HCR and SAC, of their apparent selection for award.  On September 21, the Army issued a revised preaward notice which, consistent with the terms of the RFP, listed five apparent successful offerors rather than the previously listed seven.  HCR and SAC were the two firms from the previous list of successful offerors that was not included in the revised preaward notice. On September 27, SAC filed a protest with our Office, challenging the agency’s evaluation and award determination.  On October 29, the Army notified our Office that it would take corrective action by reviewing its evaluation of proposals and making a new award decision.  We thereafter dismissed SAC’s earlier protest as academic based on the announced corrective action.  Southern Aire Contracting, Inc., B-418070, B-418070.2, Nov. 1, 2019 (unpublished decision); see also Southern Aire Contracting, Inc.--Costs, B-418070.3, Feb.