Link: GAO Opinion
Agency: Department of the Army
Disposition: Protest denied.
Keywords: Unacceptable technical approach
General Counsel P.C. Highlight: It is the offeror’s responsibility to submit an adequately written proposal for the agency to evaluate.
Hardiman Remediation Services, Inc. (Hardiman) protests the elimination of its proposal as unacceptable under a request for proposals (RFP), issued by the Department of the Army, for commercial demolition services.
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The RFP sought proposals for award of at least three and up to five fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) multiple award task order contracts for demolition services. The RFP identified four evaluation factors: (1) technical/management approach, (2) past performance, (3) price, and (4) utilization of small business. Hardiman’s proposal was eliminated from the competitive range because it received an unacceptable rating for specialized experience and task order technical approach subfactors of the technical/management approach factor as well as a marginal rating for the management approach subfactor. It challenges the unacceptable ratings.
GAO states that the evaluation of proposals is a matter within the discretion of the procuring agency, since the agency is responsible for defining its needs and deciding on the best methods of accommodating them. GAO will question the agency’s technical evaluation only where the record shows that the evaluation does not have a reasonable basis or is inconsistent with the RFP. It is the offeror’s responsibility to submit an adequately written proposal for the agency to evaluate. The agency reasonably evaluated Hardiman’s proposal as unacceptable where Hardiman failed to demonstrate the breadth and depth of experience in performing the work described in the RFP and the proposal only reflected a generic discussion of how it would accomplish demolition work required by the RFP. The generic discussion was not what the RFP required and was insufficient to demonstrate that firm’s depth and breadth of experience and technical approach to execute each phase of the task order project. The protest is denied.