Decision Released: Protest Denial of $54M CMS Business Operations Support Center (BOSC) award

Updated May 2, 2024

DIGEST

1. Protest challenging agency’s evaluation of quotations under corporate experience factor is denied where the record shows that the evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the terms of the solicitation.
2. Protest challenging agency’s source selection decision is denied where the record reflects that the source selection authority reasonably found the quotations of the awardee and the protester to be equal under the non-price factors and selected the lower-priced quotation for award.

DISCUSSION

Sparksoft first contends that the agency failed to qualitatively evaluate quotations under the corporate experience factor as required by the RFQ and unreasonably failed to consider Sparksoft’s corporate experience to be superior to Softrams’s.  Protest at 7-9; Comments at 2-10.  The agency responds that its evaluation of corporate experience was reasonable and consistent with the solicitation’s evaluation criteria.  Memorandum of Law (MOL) at 5-7.  As discussed below, we find the protester’s arguments provide no basis to sustain the protest.6

Where, as here, an agency issues a solicitation to GSA schedule contractors under FAR subpart 8.4 and conducts a competition, we will review the record to ensure that the evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the terms of the solicitation.  Advantaged Solutions, Inc., B-418790, B-418790.2, Aug. 31, 2020, 2020 CPD ¶ 307 at 8.  An agency’s evaluation of experience or past performance is, by its nature, subjective, and that evaluation, including the agency’s assessments with regard to relevance, scope, and significance, are matters of discretion which we will not disturb absent a clear demonstration that the assessments are unreasonable or inconsistent with the solicitation criteria.  Logistics Mgmt. Inst., B-418160, B-418160.2, Jan. 16, 2020, 2020 CPD ¶ 31 at 8.

The protester first alleges that the agency unreasonably evaluated vendors’ corporate experience on a pass/fail basis instead of assessing the degree of relevant experience as required by the RFQ.  Comments at 2-6.  In this regard, the protester contends that the agency only considered whether a vendor had experience in each of the six service areas identified by the RFQ and did not examine or explain how the vendors met or surpassed the RFQ’s evaluation criteria.  Comments at 3-4.   For procurements conducted pursuant to FAR subpart 8.4 and requiring a statement of work, such as this one, FAR section 8.405-2(f) establishes minimum documentation requirements.  RIVA Sols., Inc., B-418952, B-418952.2, Oct. 27, 2020, 2020 CPD ¶ 353 at 10.  Here, while we agree with the protester that the contemporaneous record could have provided more detailed discussion of the agency’s consideration of corporate experience, we nonetheless find that the agency documented its evaluation judgments in sufficient detail to show that they were reasonable.  See Logistics Mgmt. Inst., supra at 4; FAR 8.405-2.

DECISION

Sparksoft Corporation, a small business of Catonsville, Maryland, protests the issuance of a task order to Softrams, LLC, a small business of Leesburg, Virginia, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. 230352, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), for information technology (IT) services in support of CMS’s Business Operations Support Center (BOSC).  The protester challenges the agency’s evaluation of Softrams’s corporate experience and the agency’s best-value tradeoff.   We deny the protest.

Access the decision here.

 

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The lone known active GAO protest filed in relation to this Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requirement has now been denied.

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The saga continues. Nearly nine months after the first protest was filed and after a string of corrective actions was taken by the government, a fresh protest was filed with GAO yesterday concerning this not-so-recently awarded contract which serves CMMI by overseeing and onboarding their innovation models while supporting end-to-end business operations services.

Of note is that last week, Sparksoft filed for Entitlement. which is often indicative of a request for reimbursement for its agency-level protest costs. This is typically requested when the government agency evaluation has been found deficient in some way, thus forcing action by the protestor. This action remains open. OS AI does not typically report on these actions as they are procedural, but we do share here for those watching this closely.

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The lone known active GAO protest filed concerning this Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requirement has now been dismissed.

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