Decision Released: Protest Denial of HHS HRSA RFQ for Technical and Professional Services

DIGEST

Protest that agency improperly evaluated protester’s quotation for the establishment of multiple blanket purchase agreements as unacceptable is denied where the record shows that determination was reasonable and consistent with the terms of the solicitation.

DISCUSSION

FedWriters argues that its quotation was misevaluated as unacceptable. The firm contends that its quotation provided the firm’s GSA labor categories and contract labor rates and the discounted rates being quoted for the scope of work, in Excel format, as the agency had specified. Protest at 6. The firm argues that HHS thus lacked a valid basis to reject the quotation. Additionally, FedWriters argues that to the extent the RFQ required submission of a vendor’s rates in a format other than the Excel spreadsheet, that requirement was a latent ambiguity in the RFQ. Id. at 7.

HHS responds that the protest should be denied because FedWriters’s quotation lacked a copy of the firm’s GSA rate agreement that the RFQ expressly required as supporting documentation. The agency contends that any ambiguity about the requirement was patent, and argues that without a vendor’s rate agreement, the agency cannot assess the specific labor categories and qualifications a vendor offered…

DECISION

FedWriters, Inc., of Fairfax, Virginia, a small business, protests the exclusion of its quotation from the competitive range under request for quotations (RFQ) No. 75R60223Q00198, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for technical and professional services for an integrated health communication, marketing, education, and information dissemination campaign for the agency’s Health Resources and Services Administration. FedWriters argues that HHS unreasonably rejected its quotation as unacceptable.

We deny the protest.

See the decision here.

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