Protest decision released: Dismissal of VA Technical Application Support for National Surgery Office (NSO) RFQ

Digest

1. Allegations based on information contained in the award notice are dismissed as untimely because they were untimely asserted in the agency-level protest; the debriefing exception to GAO’s timeliness regulations is not applicable to agency-level protests.
2. Protest that the contracting officer unreasonably failed to challenge the status of the awardee as a service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) at the Small Business Administration is dismissed where the information giving rise to the allegation that the awardee was ineligible to be considered an SDVOSB was not apparent on the face of the awardee’s quotation.

Discussion

DSoft, which is the incumbent contractor, alleges the following: the awardee’s quotation should have been assessed a significant weakness under the technical factor because it is highly probable that AdaptiveVets cannot recruit and retain qualified software engineers at the quoted price; the agency disparately evaluated quotations when NSO evaluated both quotations as good under the technical factor; the agency unreasonably evaluated the awardee’s quotation as low risk under the past performance factor; and the contracting officer’s refusal to initiate an SBA status protest to determine whether AdaptiveVets was entitled to be considered an SDVOSB was an abuse of discretion. As discussed below, we dismiss these allegations on two bases.

AdaptiveVets argues that DSoft failed to file a timely agency-level protest, and that DSoft’s protest at GAO was thus untimely. Intervenor’s Req. for Dismissal at 3, citing 4 C.F.R. § 21.2(a)(3) (noting that, if a timely agency-level protest was previously filed, any subsequent protest to GAO must be filed within 10 days of actual or constructive knowledge of initial adverse agency action). AdaptiveVets further argues that the debriefing exception to the 10-day deadline for filing protests is inapplicable for agency-level protests.[3] Intervenor’s Req. for Dismissal at 3, citing FAR 33.103(e) (noting that, at the agency level, except for protests based on alleged apparent improprieties in a solicitation, all protests shall be filed no later than 10 days after the basis of protest is known or should have been known).

Our Office has explained that the rules for filing an agency-level protest are generally…

Decision

DSoft Technology, Engineering & Analysis, Inc., of Colorado Springs, Colorado, protests the issuance of a task order to AdaptiveVets, Inc., of West Melbourne, Florida, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. 36C10B23Q0434, issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), National Surgery Office (NSO), for technical application support for NSO systems. The protester challenges the reasonableness of the agency’s evaluation of the awardee’s quotation and asserts that the contracting officer’s failure to pursue a challenge to the awardee’s status at the Small Business Administration (SBA) was an abuse of discretion.

We dismiss the protest.

Read the decision here.

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