Logic Gate, LLC (HHM402-22-Q-0015)

B-421342.5 Jan 31, 2024 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Logic Gate, LLC, of Chantilly, Virginia, a small business, requests that our Office recommend that the Department of Defense (DOD), Defense Intelligence Agency, reimburse the firm the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing its protest with respect to the establishment of a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) with Assured Consulting Solutions, LLC, of Reston, Virginia, also a small business, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. HHM402-22-Q-0015. We dismissed the protest as academic on October 10, 2023, based upon the agency's corrective action that would, at a minimum, reevaluate all quotations and result in a new source selection decision. 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: Logic Gate, LLC--Costs File: B-421342.5 Date: January 31, 2024 Gunjan R. Talati, Esq., Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, LLP, and Daniel J. Strouse, Esq., Cordatis LLP, for the requester. Max D. Houtz, Esq., Darren S. Gilkes, Esq., William S. Whitman, Esq., and James Durkee, Esq., Department of Defense, 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 the procuring agency reimburse the requester’s costs of filing and pursuing an earlier protest is denied where the agency took corrective action prior to the due date for the agency report, notwithstanding that the agency filed an unsuccessful request for dismissal and produced relevant documents before the agency report due date. DECISION Logic Gate, LLC, of Chantilly, Virginia, a small business, requests that our Office recommend that the Department of Defense (DOD), Defense Intelligence Agency, reimburse the firm the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing its protest with respect to the establishment of a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) with Assured Consulting Solutions, LLC, of Reston, Virginia, also a small business, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. HHM402-22-Q-0015. We dismissed the protest as academic on October 10, 2023, based upon the agency’s corrective action that would, at a minimum, reevaluate all quotations and result in a new source selection decision. We deny the request. BACKGROUND This request concerns Logic’s protest before our Office filed on September 1, 2023. Logic’s protest challenged the establishment of a BPA for services of enterprise senior information technology advisors. Logic raised several arguments in the protest, one of which was that DOD had allegedly misevaluated the awardee’s quotation by failing to recognize the awardee’s labor categories that could not be mapped to its Federal Supply Schedule contract as the RFQ required. Protest at 1-3. A series of exchanges then occurred on the record. Principally, on September 18, prior to the statutory due date for the agency report of October 2, DOD produced some documents relevant to Logic’s protest. The following day, DOD filed a request to dismiss one ground of the protest. Our Office denied the request a day later as insufficient, without setting a schedule for Logic to respond. Logic next objected to DOD withholding some documents, and DOD then supplemented the early document production. On September 28, Logic filed a supplemental protest using information it received in the early document production. The supplemental protest raised detailed challenges to the evaluation of both firms’ quotations, asserted that evaluation criteria had been applied unequally, and alleged that the resulting source selection decision lacked support. Supp. Protest at 3-55. Our Office directed DOD to file a consolidated agency report addressing both the initial and supplemental protest by October 5. On October 5, in lieu of filing an agency report, DOD submitted a notice that it would take corrective action by, at a minimum, reevaluating all quotations and making a new source selection decision. Our Office subsequently dismissed Logic’s protests as academic. Logic then filed this request, seeking a recommendation that DOD reimburse the firm its costs of filing and pursuing its initial and supplemental protests, as provided in our Bid Protest Regulations. 4 C.F.R. § 21.8(e). DISCUSSION Logic argues that its protest costs should be reimbursed because its protest was clearly meritorious, and DOD was not prompt in taking corrective action. Although the firm acknowledges that the agency took corrective action before the agency report due date, it argues that the circumstances here justify an exception.