Computer Information Specialist Case Study

Computer Information Specialist, Inc. Case Study

Analysis

Computer Information Specialist, Inc. (CIS) is protesting the award of a contract to Open Technology Group, Inc. (OTG) under request for proposals (RFP) No. NLM-03-101/SAN, to acquire telecommunications support services at the agency’s Bethesda, Maryland campus.

CIS Protest that agency misevaluated proposals is sustained where record shows that agency’s evaluation conclusions with respect to protester’s proposal were either unrelated to the evaluation criteria or without a factual basis, and agency failed to note two deficiencies in awardees proposal.

Synthesis

The solicitation contemplated the award of a requirements contract with fixed hourly rates to perform telecommunications support services for a base year, with four 1-year options. The RFP advised that the agency intended to make award on a “best value” basis, with several non-price factors, collectively, being significantly more important than price. The non-price criteria (based on a point system) were: Qualifications and availability of personnel – 30 points, Past performance – 30 points, Technical competence – 20 points, Management approach – 20 points.

For pricing purposes, offerors were to submit fully-loaded, fixed hourly rates for various labor categories, evaluated prices were derived by multiplying the proposed hourly rates by estimated quantities stated in the solicitation.

Numerous proposals were received and after an initial evaluation a competitive range of four firms including the protester and the awardee were established. Discussions/evaluations with the competitive range offerors were held and on the basis of the results, the agency made the contract award to OTG.

CIS filed a formal protest, asserting that the agency misevaluated both its and the awardees’ proposals. In reviewing protests against an agency’s evaluation of proposals, we do not reevaluate the proposals.

Agency’s...