DIGEST
Protest challenging an agency official’s failure to complete a past performance questionnaire for an upcoming procurement is dismissed as premature where protest was filed prior to the completion of the agency’s evaluation and the agency has not otherwise provided substantive notice that it interprets the solicitation to prohibit the evaluation of past performance on the incumbent contract.
DISCUSSION
The protester contends that the agency’s actions here indicate that the agency will not consider Capgemini’s past performance under the incumbent contract despite no such prohibition existing in the RFQ. Protest at 7. Capgemini avers that the incumbent COR’s failure to provide a past performance questionnaire, when read with his recommendation to consider another past performance reference, is tantamount to a failure to evaluate past performance information that is “too close at hand.”2 Id. The agency requests that we dismiss such arguments as premature and speculative because the agency has not yet conducted its evaluation of past performance under the RFQ and has not made a source selection decision. Req. for Dismissal at 2.
Protests that an agency has evaluated quotations in a manner that is inconsistent with the terms of a solicitation generally are filed after the agency announces its source selection decision, consistent with the requirement that a protest must be filed within 10 days of when the basis for protest is known or should have been known. 4 C.F.R. § 21.2(a)(2). We typically dismiss as speculative and premature protests alleging that an agency intends to evaluate quotations in a manner inconsistent with the terms of a solicitation where the protest is filed prior to the agency’s actual evaluation of quotations. Cryo Techs., B-406003, Jan. 18, 2012, 2012 CPD ¶ 29 at 2 n.1. However, where the agency makes clear its interpretation of the solicitation through substantive notice during its evaluation, it may render an issue sufficiently final such that our Office’s consideration of the issues during the ongoing evaluation is the most efficient, least intrusive method to resolving the dispute. Bastion Technologies, Inc., B-418432, May 5, 2020, 2020 CPD ¶ 163 at 5; Blue Origin, LLC, B-408823, Dec. 12, 2013, 2013 CPD ¶ 289 at 8-9 (protest of agency interpretation of solicitation was timely, despite being filed after the deadline for proposal submissions, where protest was filed within 10 days of the agency expressly advising the protester of a solicitation interpretation that differed from the protester’s interpretation)…
DECISION
Capgemini Government Solutions, LLC, of McLean, Virginia, protests the General Services Administration’s (GSA) refusal to complete a past performance questionnaire for consideration in the evaluation conducted under request for quotations (RFQ) No. 1645904/47HAA023Q0126, issued by GSA for information technology (IT) operations and maintenance and development support services. The protester contends that the agency’s decision not to complete a past performance questionnaire for the incumbent contract is unreasonable.
We dismiss the protest.
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