Case Analysis: Computer Information Specialists, Inc.

Title and Citation

United States General Accounting Office (GAO) Decision

Matter of: Computer Information Specialist, Inc.

File: B-293049; B-293049.2

Date: January 23, 2004

Facts of the Case

Computer Information Specialist, Inc. (CIS) filed a protest of the award of a contract to Open Technology Group, Inc. (OTG). CIS responded to a request for proposals (RFP) No. NLM-030101/SAN by the Department of Health and Human Services for telecommunications support services at the agency’s Bethesda, Maryland facility. The solicitation specified a requirements contract with fixed hourly rates for a base year with four 1-year options. The agency intended to award the contract based on “best value” with several non-price criteria as the most heavily weighted factors. Proposals were to include fully-loaded, fixed hourly rates for labor categories. The agency received numerous proposals and established a competitive range of four firms after initial evaluation. The range included CIS as well as the eventual awardee. Following award to its competitor, CIS underwent an agency debrief and subsequently filed a protest asserting that both its proposal and the awardee’s were misevaluated.

Issues

Agencies are required to evaluate proposals based solely on the evaluation factors identified in the solicitation. Furthermore, according to Federal Acquisition Regulations, they must adequately document the reasons for their evaluation conclusions. GAO evaluated both proposals to ascertain if they were evaluated based on the evaluation factors and to determine if adequate rationale were articulated.

Decisions (Holdings)

Anthony H. Gamboa, General Counsel wrote the recommendation. The protest was sustained.

Reasoning (Rationale)

GAO concluded that the Department of Health and Human Services misevaluated the proposals of both CIS and OTG, the awardee. Furthermore, they found that the agency’s misevaluation was prejudicial to CIS, “since there is a...