CSM Solutions, Inc. (W912PB22Q3012)

B-420936.3 Jan 04, 2023 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights CSM Solutions, Inc., of Leesburg, Virginia, a small business, requests a recommendation that the Department of the Army, Regional Contracting Office Bavaria, reimburse the firm's costs of filing and pursuing a protest challenging the award of a requirements contract to Poland-U.S. Operations Sp. z o.o., of Gdynia, Poland, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. W912PB22Q3012, issued by the Department of the Army for battlefield staff ride services at European battlefield sites. CSM argues the Army unduly delayed taking corrective action in response to clearly meritorious grounds of protest. We deny the request. View Decision DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. No party requested redactions; we are therefore releasing the decision in its entirety. Decision Matter of: CSM Solutions, Inc.--Costs File: B-420936.3 Date: January 4, 2023 Gunjan R. Talati, Esq., and Jennifer L. Andrews, Esq., Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, for the requester. Major Chris Walton, and Michael McDermott, Esq., Department of the Army, for the agency. Paul N. Wengert, Esq., and Tania Calhoun, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Request for recommendation that procuring agency reimburse the protester’s costs associated with filing and pursuing earlier bid protest is denied where the protester failed to show that grounds of its initial protest were clearly meritorious when the agency announced corrective action, and where the corrective action was prompt in relation to issues raised in the supplemental protest. DECISION CSM Solutions, Inc., of Leesburg, Virginia, a small business, requests a recommendation that the Department of the Army, Regional Contracting Office Bavaria, reimburse the firm’s costs of filing and pursuing a protest challenging the award of a requirements contract to Poland-U.S. Operations Sp. z o.o., of Gdynia, Poland, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. W912PB22Q3012, issued by the Department of the Army for battlefield staff ride services at European battlefield sites. CSM argues the Army unduly delayed taking corrective action in response to clearly meritorious grounds of protest. We deny the request. BACKGROUND The RFQ required vendors to provide battlefield staff ride services, the main elements of which were to be leadership workshops, en-route instruction, terrain walks and historical analysis, bus transportation, hotel accommodations, and meals for participants. Agency Report (AR), Tab 9, Consolidated RFQ at 4. Award was made to Poland‑U.S. on July 25, 2022. On August 4, CSM filed its protest with our Office challenging the contract award, which argued that the awardee’s quotation was unacceptable under the lowest-priced technically acceptable award criteria in the RFQ. CSM contended that the RFQ required, and the awardee lacked, experience in providing battlefield staff ride services or any comparable services. Consequently, the protester maintained that the awardee’s quotation should have been evaluated as unacceptable under the RFQ’s experience subfactor, which was one of two technical subfactors. The pertinent requirement under the experience subfactor was to provide [s]upporting documentation demonstrating that the offeror has a minimum of one (1) year in performing services of same/similar scope to this solicitation within the last ten (10) years, in the amount of no less than a total amount of one (1) [m]illion [d]ollars per year. RFQ at 11. The second subfactor, subcontracting, required the vendor to show either that the firm would perform the contract itself, or submit a list of all subcontractors and provide contact information, explain each subcontractor’s role, and include a letter of commitment on the subcontractor’s official letterhead. Id. The protester asserted that the awardee’s quotation should have been rejected as unacceptable under the experience subfactor. CSM argued the awardee’s website indicated that its experience was in defense and logistics management, and further stated that the firm had only begun to offer battlefield ride services in 2022. Protest at 4. The Army submitted its agency report to our Office, which argued that the awardee was reasonably evaluated as acceptable, and in particular, the awardee “and their subcontractors” had collectively demonstrated that they met the minimum experience requirement of providing similar battlefield ride services for a period of at least one year in an amount over $1 million per year. AR, Tab 2, Contracting Officer’s Statement (COS) at 4 (quoting AR, Tab 14, Technical Evaluation Form for Awardee at 1). The agency argued that consideration of the awardee’s subcontractors’ experience in the evaluation was consistent with the RFQ’s instructions.