GVI Inc. (N66604-19-R-0182)

B-419397,B-419397.2 Feb 03, 2021 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Gateway Ventures, Inc. (GVI), of Anchorage, Alaska, protests the award of a contract to Leidos, Inc., of Reston, Virginia, under request for proposals (RFP) No. N66604-19-R-0182, issued by the Department of the Navy, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, to support towed array SONAR programs. GVI complains that the agency unreasonably evaluated its proposal. 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:  GVI Inc. File:  B-419397; B-419397.2 Date:  February 3, 2021 Christopher J. Slottee, Esq., and Kainui M. Smith, Esq., Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, for the protester. James J. McCullough, Esq., Anayansi Rodriguez, Esq., Michael J. Anstett, Esq., and Christopher Bell, Esq., Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, for the intervenor. Richard C. Dale, Esq., and Diana Murphy, Esq., Department of the Navy, for the agency. Mary G. Curcio, Esq., and Laura Eyester, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1.  Protest that agency unreasonably assigned a weakness and failed to assign strengths to protester’s technical proposal is denied where record shows that evaluation was consistent with the solicitation and protester has done no more than demonstrate its disagreement with the evaluation. 2.  Protest that agency unreasonably rated protester limited confidence for past performance is denied where agency reasonably concluded there were performance issues on a past performance reference that was very relevant, and a second past performance reference was only somewhat relevant. 3.  Protest that in conducting best-value tradeoff agency should have considered that protester offered [DELETED] percent small business participation, while awardee offered only [DELETED] percent small business participation, is denied where small business participation factor was evaluated as acceptable or unacceptable, and did not contemplate a comparative evaluation. 4.  Protest that during cost realism evaluation agency unreasonably increased protester’s escalation rate for employees covered by service contract labor standards is denied where protester did not justify proposed escalation rate of zero percent.  DECISION   Gateway Ventures, Inc. (GVI), of Anchorage, Alaska, protests the award of a contract to Leidos, Inc., of Reston, Virginia, under request for proposals (RFP) No. N66604-19-R-0182, issued by the Department of the Navy, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, to support towed array SONAR programs.  GVI complains that the agency unreasonably evaluated its proposal. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND The Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division operates the Naval Array Technical Support Center (NATSC) whose mission is to provide lifecycle support (diagnostic testing, troubleshooting, refurbishments, upgrades and repairs) for all Navy towed arrays including surface ship and submarine applications.  Agency Report (AR), Tab 1, Contracting Officer’s Statement (COS) at 1.  The solicitation was issued to support this mission.  Id.  The solicitation provides for contractor support services to manufacture, upgrade, repair, refurbish, diagnose, troubleshoot, test, evaluate, salvage and scrap towed arrays, towed array modules, towed array component parts, tow cables, tow cable component parts, towed array outboard cable assemblies, hoses, hose component parts, ancillary equipment and ancillary equipment component parts for all United States Navy and Foreign Military Sales towed array systems currently in service, recently taken out of service, and others that may be put into the fleet.  AR, Tab 4, RFP at 30.  The RFP’s statement of work (SOW) included multiple tasks and subtasks that offerors were required to perform, as well as multiple reports that offerors were required to file.  The solicitation was issued on May 22, 2019, with proposals due on August 30.  RFP at 2.  The solicitation anticipated award of an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract with a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract line item for labor, a cost line item for other direct costs, and a fixed-price line item for material.  Id. at 22, 23, 25.  The solicitation included four pass/fail evaluation factors:  transition plan, plan for obtaining clearances, facility clearance, and organizational conflict of interest mitigation plan.  Id.