ManTech Advanced Systems International, Inc., of Herndon, Virginia, protests the terms of request for quotations (RFQ) No. RFQ-09232022, issued by the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for digital and information technology services. The agency amended the RFQ when it took corrective action following earlier challenges from multiple protesters, including ManTech, concerning their elimination from the competition. ManTech now challenges the agency’s amended price realism methodology and the agency’s decision to limit the scope of quotation revisions.
We deny the protest.
“DIGEST – Protest challenging the amended terms of a solicitation, resulting from an agency’s decision to take corrective action in response to earlier protests, is denied where the agency revised the price realism evaluation criteria and limited revisions to the price quotations, and the protester has not established that the amended terms of the solicitation are unreasonable or contrary to applicable procurement law and regulation.
DECISION – ManTech Advanced Systems International, Inc., of Herndon, Virginia, protests the terms of request Afor quotations (RFQ) No. RFQ-09232022, issued by the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for digital and information technology services. The agency amended the RFQ when it took corrective action following earlier challenges from multiple protesters, including ManTech, concerning their elimination from the competition. ManTech now challenges the agency’s amended price realism methodology and the agency’s decision to limit the scope of quotation revisions.
We deny the protest.
BACKGROUND – On August 23, 2022, pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 8.4, the agency issued the RFQ from the General Services Administration (GSA), Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Special Identification Number (SIN) 54151S, contract for information technology professional services. According to the RFQ, the agency seeks to acquire agile teams, each comprised of three to 11 individuals, to deliver digital and information technology services for the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division (CJIS). See Agency Report (AR), Tab 6, RFQ amend. 7.[1] The RFQ explains that an agile team is a “cross-functional group of individuals who define, build, test, and deliver an increment of value,” and that these teams will apply a “Scaled Agile Framework” (SAFe), which is “an enterprise agility framework that helps organizations apply lean and agile principles and practices at all levels of the organization.” Id. at 4‑5.
The RFQ seeks to establish five time-and-materials and fixed-price task orders–collectively called “FBI Agility with SAFe Teams” (FAST)–one for each of five service areas for the FBI’s CJIS. Each task order is identified by a separate contract line item number (CLIN), as follows: CLIN 1, law enforcement support services; CLIN 2, biometric services; CLIN 3, National Crime Information Center; CLIN 4, shared services; and CLIN 5, operational programs.[2] Id. at 5. The period of performance for each task order includes a base period of one year, including a 3-month transition period and 9‑month base period, and four 12-month option periods. Id. at 16.
The RFQ provides for award on a best-value tradeoff basis, applying a three-phase advisory down-selection evaluation approach in which vendors were instructed to submit certain volumes of their quotations and the agency would evaluate them under certain evaluation factors, as follows: phase one (facility clearance; corporate experience; staffing approach); phase two (SAFe agile methodology demonstration); and phase three (price).[3] The RFQ advises that…”
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