ICF Incorporated, LLC (693JJ323R000008)

B-421850.5 Feb 09, 2024 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights ICF Incorporated, L.L.C., of Reston, Virginia, requests that our Office recommend that ICF be reimbursed the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing a protest of the issuance of a task order to The Cadmus Group LLC, of Waltham, Massachusetts, under request for proposals (RFP) No. 693JJ323R000008, issued by the Department of Transportation (DOT), Federal Highway Administration, to support the DOT's establishment and administration of the Reconnecting Communities Institute. We deny the request. View Decision DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. The entire decision has been approved for public release. Decision Matter of: ICF Incorporated, LLC--Costs File: B-421850.5 Date: February 9, 2024 Dawn E. Stern, Esq., David R. Lacker, Esq., and Christie M. Alvarez, Esq., DLA Piper LLP-US, for the protester. Alissa M. Dolan, Esq., Department of Transportation, for the agency. Michelle Litteken, Esq., and Christina Sklarew, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Request for reimbursement of protest costs is denied where the agency took prompt corrective action in response to the protester’s filing of supplemental protest allegations, and where the initial protest grounds were not clearly meritorious. DECISION ICF Incorporated, L.L.C., of Reston, Virginia, requests that our Office recommend that ICF be reimbursed the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing a protest of the issuance of a task order to The Cadmus Group LLC, of Waltham, Massachusetts, under request for proposals (RFP) No. 693JJ323R000008, issued by the Department of Transportation (DOT), Federal Highway Administration, to support the DOT’s establishment and administration of the Reconnecting Communities Institute. We deny the request. BACKGROUND On June 11, 2023, the DOT issued the solicitation to holders of the General Services Administration’s One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) multiple award indefinite‑delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract in accordance with the procedures of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 16.5. Contracting Officer’s Statement and Memorandum of Law (COS/MOL) at 2. The RFP anticipated the issuance of a time-and-materials task order for contractor support to establish and administer the Reconnecting Communities Institute, which will provide training and technical assistance to build organizational or community capacity in transportation planning and identify innovative solutions to infrastructure challenges aligned with the DOT’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program. Agency Report (AR), Exh. 1, RFP at 9. The solicitation established that award would be made on the basis of a best-value tradeoff using two evaluation factors--technical and price--with the technical factor being significantly more important than price. RFP at 4. Technical proposals were to be assigned confidence ratings of high confidence, some confidence, or low confidence in an evaluation process that would identify aspects of the proposal that increased or decreased confidence.[1] COS/MOL at 5. The solicitation provided that if proposals were of equal merit under the technical factor, price might become more important in the award decision. RFP at 4-5 The technical factor consisted of the following four subfactors, listed in descending order of importance: technical approach, staffing approach, experience, and supporting community wealth building.[2] RFP at 5-6. As relevant here, for the staffing approach subfactor, offerors were required to “Demonstrate a sound and realistic staffing approach to include a satisfactory staffing mix, program management, clear description of each staff’s proposed role, and realistic level of effort and allocation of resources for each role.” Id. at 6. Offerors were also required to demonstrate an ability to provide the areas of expertise needed to develop and implement technical assistance during performance. Id. The DOT received four proposals prior to the submission deadline. COS/MOL at 6. The agency evaluated the offerors’ proposals as follows:   Technical Price Cadmus High Confidence $26,999,966 ICF High Confidence $35,899,609 Offeror No. 3 Some Confidence $31,950,693 Offeror No. 4 Some Confidence $34,574,913 AR, Exh. 7, Source Selection Decision (SSD) at 16. In the technical evaluation team’s evaluation of ICF’s technical proposal, the agency identified three aspects of the proposal that decreased the evaluators’ confidence in the protester’s proposal. AR, Exh.