CruxDCG LL (36C10X23R0006)

B-421581.2,B-421581.3 Sep 25, 2023 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights The District Communications Group, LLC (District), of Plantation, Florida, and CruxDCG LLC, of Roseville, California, a small business, protest their exclusion from competition for a contract under request for proposals (RFP) No. 36C10X23R0006, issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Strategic Acquisition Center, for commercial support services to assist the VA's efforts to reduce and prevent suicide in military and veteran populations. The protesters contend that the RFP improperly excludes them from the competition to avoid an impaired objectivity type of organizational conflict of interest (OCI) arising from other work being performed by District. The protesters argue that no conflict exists or that any potential conflict could be easily avoided without excluding the protesters from the competition. We deny the protests. 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: The District Communications Group, LLC; CruxDCG LLC File: B-421581.2; B-421581.3 Date: September 25, 2023 H. Todd Whay, Esq., and Ian A. Cronogue, Esq., Baker, Cronogue, Tolle & Werfel, LLP, for the protesters. Danica Hong, Esq., and Aleia Barlow, Esq., Department of Veterans Affairs, for the agency. Paul N. Wengert, Esq., and Scott H. Riback, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protests that agency unreasonably excluded the protesters from a competition on the basis of an impaired objectivity organizational conflict of interest arising from an ongoing task order for related services are denied, where the contracting officer meaningfully considered the circumstances and reasonably concluded that possible award of a contract to the protesters presented an impaired objectivity type conflict of interest that could be avoided by exclusion of the firms from the competition. DECISION The District Communications Group, LLC (District), of Plantation, Florida, and CruxDCG LLC, of Roseville, California, a small business, protest their exclusion from competition for a contract under request for proposals (RFP) No. 36C10X23R0006, issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Strategic Acquisition Center, for commercial support services to assist the VA’s efforts to reduce and prevent suicide in military and veteran populations. The protesters contend that the RFP improperly excludes them from the competition to avoid an impaired objectivity type of organizational conflict of interest (OCI) arising from other work being performed by District. The protesters argue that no conflict exists or that any potential conflict could be easily avoided without excluding the protesters from the competition. We deny the protests. BACKGROUND As the protests involve analysis of an OCI that arises from the potential relationship between two contracting vehicles that both relate to a common set of policy goals, we begin with a brief explanation of the procurement’s policy goals, the contracting instruments, and their parties. On November 2, 2021, the president of the United States issued a set of five White House priority goals regarding prevention of suicide among military and veteran populations. The goals are “to help organize a focused set of agency actions that will advance evidence-based approaches to reduce military and veteran suicide.” White House, Reducing Military and Veteran Suicide: Advancing a Comprehensive, Cross-Sector, Evidence-Informed Public Health Strategy.[1] The first of the five goals is to improve ‘lethal means safety’ by focusing on ensuring time and space between a person and crisis and their access to lethal means, including firearms and medications. Id. The second goal is to enhance crisis care and facilitate care transitions, and it instructed the VA and other agencies to collaborate to create a “Feasibility Analysis and Implementation Plan” for broad implementation of evidence-based suicide risk assessment and safety planning within emergency care settings throughout the United States. Id. at 12. Separate from the procurement at issue in this protest, on April 4, 2023, the VA awarded a task order to a firm named J.R. Reingold & Associates, Inc. to provide commercial general mental health and suicide prevention awareness and education outreach support services for a base year and four option years (i.e., through April 3, 2028). Agency Report (AR) Exh. 3, Reingold Task Order[2] at 1, 26.