GOV National Healthcare Drive, LLC (36C10F18R0659)

B-419258.4 Oct 07, 2021 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights GOV National Healthcare Drive, LLC, a small business of Huntington, New York, requests that our Office recommend that it be reimbursed certain additional costs associated with preparing its proposal in response to request for lease proposals (RFP) No. 36C10F18R0659, issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for the lease of premises to be used for a community-based outpatient clinic in Daytona Beach, Florida. GOV also requests that we recommend that it be reimbursed certain additional costs associated with filing and pursuing a bid protest challenging the award of the lease under the RFP to Carnegie Management and Development Corporation. Following an earlier decision from our Office sustaining GOV's protest and recommending that it be reimbursed the aforementioned costs, GOV submitted its certified claim for such costs to the VA. The agency has agreed to pay a total of $197,730.50 of this claim and our decision here addresses only the disputed portion of the claim, as detailed below. We grant the request, in part, and deny it, in part. 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:  GOV National Healthcare Drive, LLC File:  B-419258.4 Date:  October 7, 2021 Paul F. Khoury, Esq., Richard B. O’Keeffe, Jr., Esq., and Lindy C. Bathurst, Esq., Wiley Rein LLP, for the protester. Alicia M. Harrington, Esq., Department of Veterans Affairs, for the agency. Scott H. Riback, Esq., and Tania Calhoun, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Request for recommendation that agency reimburse a greater portion of the protester’s costs than the agency has agreed to pay is granted, in part, and denied, in part; record shows that agency unreasonably rejected many--but not all--of the protester’s claimed costs. DECISION GOV National Healthcare Drive, LLC, a small business of Huntington, New York, requests that our Office recommend that it be reimbursed certain additional costs associated with preparing its proposal in response to request for lease proposals (RFP) No. 36C10F18R0659, issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for the lease of premises to be used for a community-based outpatient clinic in Daytona Beach, Florida.  GOV also requests that we recommend that it be reimbursed certain additional costs associated with filing and pursuing a bid protest challenging the award of the lease under the RFP to Carnegie Management and Development Corporation.  Following an earlier decision from our Office sustaining GOV’s protest and recommending that it be reimbursed the aforementioned costs, GOV submitted its certified claim for such costs to the VA.  The agency has agreed to pay a total of $197,730.50 of this claim and our decision here addresses only the disputed portion of the claim, as detailed below. We grant the request, in part, and deny it, in part. BACKGROUND In September 2020, after conducting a competition, the VA executed a 20-year lease with Carnegie.  After being advised of the agency’s source selection decision, GOV filed a protest with our Office, arguing that the agency misevaluated proposals, failed to engage in meaningful discussions, and made an unreasonable source selection decision.  We sustained GOV’s protest allegation relating to the agency’s conduct of discussions, concluding that, although the agency opened discussions with the offerors, it failed to bring any of the deficiencies or weaknesses identified by the agency in the protester’s proposal to its attention.  GOV National Healthcare Drive, LLC, B‑419258 et al., Jan. 13 2021, 2021 CPD ¶ 25. As we noted in our earlier decision, under the circumstances presented by the case, we ordinarily would have recommended that the agency reopen the acquisition, conduct discussions, solicit, obtain, and evaluate revised proposals, and make a new source selection decision, terminating the lease awarded to Carnegie for the convenience of the government, if appropriate.  However, because the lease executed between Carnegie and the agency did not include a termination for convenience clause, we were unable to make such a recommendation.  Instead, we recommended that the agency pay GOV the costs associated with preparing its proposal in response to the RFP, as well as the costs associated with filing and pursuing its protest with our Office, including reasonable attorneys’ fees.  GOV National Healthcare Drive, LLC, supra.