Past performance is a key part of most government proposal evaluations. Generally, a federal agency gets a lot of discretion in evaluating past performance. But that discretion is not without limits. In a recent decision, GAO sustained a protest where the agency failed to properly evaluate past performance examples for being similar in size.
In General Dynamics Information Technology, Inc., B-421290.2 (March 1, 2023), GDIT (or protester) protested a task order award to GovCIO, LLC (or awardee) under a VA procurement for electronic file conversion services. The evaluation looked at standard items like technical, staffing, and past performance, with technical being more important than past performance. The proposals were both low risk on past performance, but while protester had a higher technical rating than the awardee, the awardee had a much lower cost and there were “no significant advantages or disadvantages between the offers to justify the payment of the price difference associated with GDIT’s offer, given the level of technical competence available at GCIO’s lower price.”…
GAO didn’t buy this, responding that the “agency’s response to the protest does not specifically explain how it found the size of the PMCMS reference relevant in light the smaller size of the reference ($101 million) as compared to the proposed price for this procurement ($241 million).” “Similarly, the agency does not specifically explain how it found the size of the EMMS reference relevant in light of the smaller size of the reference ($40 million) as compared to the proposed price for this procurement ($241 million).” The agency also didn’t address the discrepancies in number of FTEs between sample project and contract scope. (The actual FTE comparison was redacted)
The VA also argued that it looked at “number of users [and] locations served,” to determine relevancy, but there were no specifics cited from the awardee’s proposal to back this up. Then, VA claimed it had familiarity with these past contracts, stating: “VA is uniquely positioned in regard to the Paper Mail task order as the same office oversaw the performance of this contract. Accordingly, VA found that based on the total price and the number of users, locations served, and staff, the Paper Mail task order is similar in size to the CS task order.” … Read the full article here.
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Jackie Gilbert.
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