Protest Denial Decision: $15B GSA Polaris GWAC Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Pool

DIGEST

Protest is denied where record shows that agency’s action in amending the solicitation to address errors found in a prior protest was reasonable.

DISCUSSION

VCH challenges the terms and conditions of amendment 4 as unreasonably limiting proposal revisions.5  In the protester’s view, the agency should instead “allow offerors to revise all aspects of their proposals.”  Protest at 1.  The agency defends amendment 4 as a reasonable and appropriate response to the COFC decision and injunction regarding this solicitation.  COS at 10-12; MOL at 4-9.  We have considered the arguments and issues raised by VCH, and while we do not address them all, we find no basis on which to sustain the protest.   Under the solicitation, offerors must submit a minimum of three, and a maximum of five, “Primary Relevant Experience Projects.”  RFP at 76.  Each project is worth 4,000 points, and offerors can then claim additional points based on the characteristics of the projects.  Id. at 102-03.  Offerors are also permitted to submit a maximum of three “Emerging Technology Relevant Experience Projects.”  Id. at 82.  Offerors can claim 1,000 points for each of these projects, and up to 1,000 additional points based on the breadth of experience demonstrated across those projects.  Id. at 103. In the version of the SDVOSB pool solicitation that VCH protested at the COFC, the RFP required of MPJVs, “a minimum of one Primary Relevant Experience Project or Emerging Technology Relevant Experience Project must be from the Protégé or the offering Mentor-Protégé Joint Venture.”  AR, Tab 3c, RFP amend. 2 at 70.  For SDVOSB JVs (not MPJVs), the RFP similarly required that a minimum of one experience project “must be from an SDVOSB member of the joint venture or the offering SDVOSB Joint Venture.” …

DECISION

VCH Partners, LLC (VCH), a mentor-protégé joint venture1 service-disabled veteran owned small business (SDVOSB) of Denver, Colorado, protests the terms and conditions of General Services Administration (GSA) request for proposals (RFP) No. 47QTCB22R0007, for the SDVOSB pool of the governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC) called Polaris, to provide customized information technology (IT) services and services-based solutions.  The protester argues that a solicitation amendment, issued by GSA in response to a prior protest before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC), unreasonably limits proposal revisions.

We deny the protest.

Access the decision here.

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Protest Denied: $15B GSA Polaris GWAC Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Pool

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