Chimes District of Columbia, Inc. (47PD0320Q0008)

B-419972 Oct 18, 2021 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Chimes District of Columbia, Inc., of Baltimore, Maryland, protests the establishment of a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) with South Dade Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (SDAC), of Homestead, Florida, under Request for Quotations (RFQ) No. 47PD0320Q0008, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) for engineering, operation and maintenance, and related services for two federal buildings in Washington, D.C. The protester challenges the agency's evaluation of quotations and selection decision. We dismiss 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:  Chimes District of Columbia, Inc. File:  B-419972 Date:  October 18, 2021 Heather Mims, Esq., David R. Warner, Esq., Tyler Freiberger, Esq., and Brandon  Graves, Esq., Centre Law and Consulting, LLC, for the protester. Robert Notigan, Esq., and Alexis Webster, Esq., General Services Administration, for the agency. Young H. Cho, Esq., and Peter H. Tran, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest is dismissed where the protester’s quotation was found to be technically unacceptable under all non-price evaluation factors but the firm did not challenge its rating of unacceptable under the most important factor, thus failing to establish that it was competitively prejudiced. DECISION Chimes District of Columbia, Inc., of Baltimore, Maryland, protests the establishment of a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) with South Dade Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (SDAC), of Homestead, Florida, under Request for Quotations (RFQ) No. 47PD0320Q0008, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) for engineering, operation and maintenance, and related services for two federal buildings in Washington, D.C.  The protester challenges the agency’s evaluation of quotations and selection decision. We dismiss the protest. BACKGROUND The RFQ, issued on March 16, 2020, sought quotations from holders of GSA Federal Supply Schedule No. 03FAC (Facilities Maintenance and Management) contracts, to establish a single fixed-price BPA under the rules prescribed in Federal Acquisition Regulation section 8.405-3 for a 1-year base period and nine 1-year option periods.  Contracting Officer’s Statement (COS) at 3; Agency Report (AR), Exh. 1A, Revised RFQ at 3.[1]  The RFQ stated that the BPA would be established based on a best-value tradeoff basis, considering price and the following non-price factors, listed in descending order of importance:  management plan, prior experience, and past performance.  Id. at 9, 18.  The non-price factors, when combined, were more important than price.  Id. at 9.  The evaluation was to be conducted in two phases.  Id.  In the first phase, vendors were to be evaluated under the prior experience, past performance, and price factors.  Id.  Vendors whose quotations were deemed as having “low probability of success and a high overall risk” to the government would be notified in writing.  Id. at 10.  Upon receiving such notification, vendors were not automatically eliminated, but were required to affirmatively elect to continue to the next phase of the competition.  Id.  Vendors wishing to continue to the next phase had 10 days from the time of request to submit their phase two quotation, addressing the management plan factor.  Id. GSA initially received quotations from 17 vendors by the solicitation closing date.  AR, Exh. 3, Phase One Tech. Report at 4.  After an initial evaluation, the agency requested management plans from 12 vendors, including SDAC, but not Chimes.  Id. at 28.  The agency informed Chimes that it was not likely to receive the award, and that the agency was not requesting a management plan from Chimes.  Protest at 5.  Chimes responded by notifying the contracting officer that it wished to continue to the next phase of the competition.  Id.  Fourteen vendors, including Chimes and SDAC, submitted management plans.  AR, Exh. 3A, Phase Two Tech. Report at 4. In its evaluation, the agency (1) identified aspects of the quotations that were favorable, unfavorable, or met requirements; (2) assigned adjectival ratings for each non-price factor, as well as an overall non-price (“technical”) rating; and (3) ranked the non-price quotations.  Id. at 10‑12, 23-24.  The evaluation results of Chimes and SDAC’s quotations were as follows:   Chimes SDAC Overall Technical Rating Unacceptable Acceptable   Management Plan Unacceptable Acceptable   Prior Experience Unacceptable Acceptable   Past Performance Unacceptable Very Good Ranking by Technical Rating 13 2 Total Evaluated  Price $28,119,596 $29,695,730   AR, Exh.