Link: GAO Opinion
Agency: Department of Veteran Affairs
Disposition: Protest sustained.
Keywords: Experience Requirements
General Counsel P.C. Highlight: Generally, the experience of a technically qualified subcontractor may be used to satisfy definitive responsibility criteria relating to experience for a prospective prime contractor. An exception to the rule exists, however, where the solicitation provides that only the prime contractor’s experience will be considered.
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The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), under request for proposals (RFP), awarded a contract for construction services, to Specialized Veterans, LLC (Specialized). J2A2 JV, LLC (J2A) was not awarded the contract and asserts that the awardee’s proposal should have been rejected for failure to comply with certain solicitation requirements pertaining to experience.
The RFP, which was set aside for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, provided for award to the offeror who submitted the lowest priced, technically acceptable proposal. To be technically acceptable, VA looked at construction management, past performance, and proposed schedule. Thirteen offerors submitted proposals and J2A’s proposal was the tenth lowest in price, while Specialized’s proposal was fifth lowest in price. For various reasons, the first four firms were disqualified and Specialized was awarded the contract.
J2A asserted that Specialized’s proposal should have been rejected because Specialized did not meet the RFP requirement for five years of experience as a general contractor and in building golf courses or similar earthwork projects and the RFP requirement of corporate experience with contracts similar in size and scope. Specialized argued that it met the experience requirement through its subcontractors.
Generally, the experience of a technically qualified subcontractor may be used to satisfy definitive responsibility criteria relating to experience for a prospective prime contractor. An exception to the rule exists, however, where the solicitation provides that only the prime contractor’s experience will be considered.
GAO concluded that it was improper for the evaluators to consider the experience of Specialized’s proposed subcontractors for purposes of determining compliance with the five year requirement. The RFP required that the “general contractor” have this experience, which meant Specialized as the general contractor had to have this experience and not its subcontractors. Given this interpretation of the RFP, GAO found that Specialized, which was started in 2009, did not have the required five years of experience as a general contractor or five years experience building golf courses.