Protest Denial Decision Posted: Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Information Management and IT Resource Management Support – RFP HQ0858-22-R-0002

GAO Case: B-421053.2

Digest

Protest of the assessment of a deficiency to the protester’s mission capability proposal is denied where the evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the terms of the solicitation.

Discussion

The protester challenges the agency’s evaluation of its mission capability proposal. Specifically, Two Knights contends that in assessing a deficiency under the network operations support subfactor for failing to address hybrid cloud infrastructure or propose specific details concerning a hybrid cloud solution, the MDA applied unstated evaluation criteria and ignored information in Two Knights’s proposal. Protest at 15.

The MDA responds that the solicitation expressly required offerors to propose an approach to accomplish the task of providing assistance to and management of an IT environment that includes hybrid cloud computing environments. Memorandum of Law (MOL) at 12 (quoting AR, Tab 4b, RFP § L at 21 and RFP § M at 9). The agency also states the evaluators did not ignore information in the protester’s proposal. The MDA asserts Two Knights did not address hybrid cloud computing environments in the pertinent section of its proposal. Id. at 16‑17.

In reviewing a protest challenging an agency’s evaluation, our Office will not reevaluate proposals, nor substitute our judgment for that of the agency, as the evaluation of proposals is a matter within the agency’s discretion. Rather, we will review the record to determine whether the agency’s evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the …

Decision

Two Knights Defense, LLC, a small business of Huntsville, Alabama, protests the award of a contract to Five Stones Research Corporation, a small business of Huntsville, Alabama, under request for proposals (RFP) No. HQ0858-22-R-0002, issued by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) for information management and information technology (IT) resource management support. The protester challenges the agency’s evaluation of its proposal under the mission capability and past performance factors, as well as the best-value tradeoff decision.

We deny the protest.

Read the decision here.

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