Decision Released: WOSB Protest of CMS RFQ for Training Planning and Meetings Support Services Sustained

DIGEST

1. Protest challenging the agency’s interpretation of the solicitation is sustained where the solicitation was latently ambiguous with regard to information vendors were required to submit with their quotations under the technical approach factor.
2. Protest alleging the agency failed to evaluate vendors’ quotations on an equal basis is sustained where the record demonstrates the agency did not evaluate quotations in an even-handed manner.
3. Protest challenging the agency’s technical evaluation of quotations is sustained where the agency’s evaluation was inconsistent with the terms of the solicitation, unsupported by the contemporaneous record, and otherwise unreasonable.
4. Protest challenging the agency’s price evaluation of the awardee’s quotation is sustained where the agency unreasonably determined the awardee’s pricing to be fair and reasonable despite the awardee proposing labor rates in excess of its Federal Supply Schedule contract rates.

DISCUSSION

Kauffman raises numerous challenges to CMS’s evaluation of quotations. Specifically, the protester argues: (1) the agency’s assessment of two significant weaknesses to Kauffman’s quotation and subsequent decision to find the quotation ineligible for further consideration was unreasonable; (2) the agency’s evaluation of Kauffman’s and Octane’s quotations under each of the non-cost factors was otherwise unreasonable; (3) the agency’s price evaluation was flawed and unreasonable; and (4) the resultant best‑value decision was unreasonable…

DECISION

Kauffman and Associates, Inc., a women-owned small business of Spokane, Washington, protests the issuance of an order to Octane Public Relations, a small-disadvantaged business of Washington, District of Columbia, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. 231122, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for training planning and meetings support services. The protester raises multiple challenges concerning the agency’s evaluation of vendors’ quotations and subsequent best-value decision.

We sustain the protest.

See the decision here.

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