Rho Federal Systems Division, Inc. (NIAID-DAIT-75N93020R00019)

B-420491.4 Aug 11, 2022 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Rho Federal Systems Division, Inc., a small business of Durham, North Carolina, requests that our Office recommend that the firm be reimbursed the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing its protest of the contract award to The Emmes Company, LLC, of Rockville, Maryland. The contract award was made under request for proposals (RFP) No. NIAID-DAIT-75N93020R00019, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health (NIH) for services supporting NIH's Allergy and Asthma Statistical and Clinical Coordinating Center. Rho argues that its protest was clearly meritorious and that the agency unduly delayed taking corrective action. We deny the request. 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: Rho Federal Systems Division, Inc.--Costs File: B-420491.4 Date: August 11, 2022 James Y. Boland, Esq., Michael T. Francel, Esq., and Lindsay M. Reed, Esq., Venable LLP, for the requester. Olufemi Adedoyin, Esq., Department of Health and Human Services, for the agency. Kasia Dourney, Esq., and Alexander O. Levine, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Request for a recommendation for reimbursement of protest costs is denied where the requester fails to demonstrate that any of the protest grounds, raised before the agency announced its intent to take corrective action in response to a supplemental protest, were clearly meritorious. DECISION Rho Federal Systems Division, Inc., a small business of Durham, North Carolina, requests that our Office recommend that the firm be reimbursed the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing its protest of the contract award to The Emmes Company, LLC, of Rockville, Maryland. The contract award was made under request for proposals (RFP) No. NIAID-DAIT-75N93020R00019, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health (NIH) for services supporting NIH’s Allergy and Asthma Statistical and Clinical Coordinating Center. Rho argues that its protest was clearly meritorious and that the agency unduly delayed taking corrective action. We deny the request. BACKGROUND NIH issued the RFP on August 20, 2020, seeking proposals to provide support services for the design, development, execution, and analysis of clinical research of allergic diseases and asthma performed at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.[1] COS at 1. The solicitation contemplated award of a single cost-reimbursement type contract, on a best-value tradeoff basis, considering the following evaluation factors, in descending order of importance: technical, cost, and past performance. AR, Tab 3.1, RFP at 68, 117. Following receipt of five proposals, an evaluation, and the establishment of a competitive range, NIH entered into discussions with three offerors, including with Rho and Emmes. COS at 2-3. After evaluating revised proposals, the agency awarded the contract to Emmes. Id. at 3. On January 31, 2022, Rho protested the award to our Office. See, generally, Protest (B-420491). The protester alleged that NIH failed to follow the evaluation criteria set forth in the RFP, converted a best-value tradeoff procurement into a lowest-price, technically acceptable (LPTA) competition, and failed to make award on a cost-plus-fixed-fee basis. Id. at 9-13. Rho also argued that the agency failed to perform a cost realism analysis of Emmes’s proposed cost, and failed to consider Rho’s incumbent past performance reference. Id. at 13-17. Further, Rho asserted that NIH misevaluated technical proposals, including not considering technical risks arising from the awardee’s low cost, and failed to assess the relative risks associated with each offeror’s past performance. Supp. Protest at 6-24. On February 11, Emmes, who intervened in the protest, requested a partial dismissal of the protest. Intervenor’s Req. for Dismissal at 1. Specifically, Emmes sought dismissal of Rho’s cost realism, technical, and past performance evaluation challenges, and the protester’s assertion that NIH failed to make award on a cost-plus-fixed-fee basis as speculative and legally insufficient. Id. at 3-6. Our Office agreed, in part, and notified the parties that we intended to dismiss the challenges to NIH’s award determination, and the agency’s failure to assess technical risks arising from the awardee’s low cost. GAO Notice of Decision on Partial Dismissal at 1. In response to the remaining protest grounds, the agency filed an agency report, in which it maintained that the evaluation and source selection were reasonable and consistent with the RFP criteria.