Leidos Inc. (47QFWA22R0013)

B-421476.4,B-421476.5 Jul 19, 2023 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Leidos, Inc., of Reston, Virginia, protests the issuance of a task order to Amentum Services, Inc., of Germantown, Maryland, under request for proposals (RFP) No. 47QFWA22R0013, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) to acquire, on behalf of the Department of the Army, support services in connection with development, integration and testing of prototype systems for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems to be deployed on various weapons systems. Leidos argues that the agency misevaluated proposals and made an unreasonable source selection decision. 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: Leidos Inc. File: B-421476.4; B-421476.5 Date: July 19, 2023 J. Scott Hommer, III, Esq., Emily R. Marcy, Esq., Rebecca E. Pearson, Esq., Christopher Griesedieck, Esq., and Lindsay M. Reed, Esq., Venable LLP, for the protester. Jason A. Carey, Esq., J. Hunter Bennett, Esq., Andrew R. Guy, Esq., Jennifer K. Bentley, Esq., and Emma Merrill-Grubb, Esq., Covington & Burling, LLP, for the intervenor. Kathryn M. Navin, Esq., General Services Administation, for the agency. Scott H. Riback, Esq., and Tania Calhoun, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest challenging agency’s evaluation of proposals and source selection decision is denied where record shows that the agency’s evaluation and source selection was reasonable and consistent with the terms of the solicitation and applicable statutes and regulations. DECISION Leidos, Inc., of Reston, Virginia, protests the issuance of a task order to Amentum Services, Inc., of Germantown, Maryland, under request for proposals (RFP) No. 47QFWA22R0013, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) to acquire, on behalf of the Department of the Army, support services in connection with development, integration and testing of prototype systems for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems to be deployed on various weapons systems. Leidos argues that the agency misevaluated proposals and made an unreasonable source selection decision. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND This is Leidos’s second protest in connection with the agency’s issuance of a task order to Amentum under this solicitation. In response to Leidos’s first protest (which Leidos supplemented twice, and which raised various challenges to the agency’s evaluation of proposals and earlier source selection decision), the agency took corrective action before the deadline for submission of the agency report. We dismissed the protest as academic. Leidos, Inc., B-421476, et al., Mar. 21, 2023 (unpublished decision). The agency subsequently reevaluated proposals and made a new source selection, again selecting Amentum for issuance of the task order. That reevaluation and selection decision are the subject of the current protest. The RFP contemplates the issuance, on a base-value tradeoff basis, of a fixed-price task order for a base year and four 1-year options. RFP at 5.[1] Firms were advised that proposals would be evaluated considering price and two non-price factors, previous experience (deemed most important) and technical and management approach.[2] RFP at 37. The RFP further advised that the two non-price factors together were deemed significantly more important than price, but that as proposals were determined comparatively closer together in technical merit, price would increase in importance. Id. The RFP provided that the agency would evaluate price for fairness and reasonableness, and also for realism. The agency received three proposals in response to the solicitation. Based on an evaluation of those proposals, the agency initially selected Amentum for issuance of the task order in January 2023. Leidos requested a debriefing from the agency and, in the course of that debriefing, the agency determined that a reevaluation of proposals and a new source selection were required to make corrections to the initial evaluation. The agency performed that reevaluation and again selected Amentum in February. Leidos received a second debriefing from the agency and filed a protest with our Office alleging various improprieties with the agency’s evaluation and source selection. As noted above, the agency elected to take corrective action in response to that protest, which we subsequently dismissed as academic. Thereafter, the agency reevaluated the Amentum and Leidos proposals a second time.