Tag: best-value tradeoff

60-Second Sustains: Sparksoft Corporation

Elizabeth N. Jochum ●

Sparksoft Corporation
B-422440;.2

  • The awardee’s Systems Security Officer (“SSO”) was awarded a positive finding for holding a certified information systems security professional (“CISSP”) certification. The protester alleged that their SSO held the same certification, as demonstrated in the proposal, but was not awarded an equal positive finding.
  • The agency admitted the unequal treatment was an evaluation error but argued Sparksoft was not prejudiced by the “oversight.” 
  • GAO disagreed, noting that the contemporaneous record showed that when the source selection authority (“SSA”) compared the awardee’s proposal to Sparksoft, the SSA highlighted the awardee’s SSO CISSP certificate as a discriminator between the two proposals.
  • When performing the best-value tradeoff, the SSA acknowledged the price differential between the two proposals was “significant” but concluded that “distinguishing positive features” in the awardee’s proposal justified this premium.
  • GAO found that it was not clear the SSA would have come to the same conclusion if not for the unequal treatment of the offerors’ SSOs.
  • Accordingly, GAO sustained the protest and recommended the agency reevaluate both offerors under the key personnel factor and perform a new best value tradeoff.

60-Second Sustains: R&K Enterprise Solutions, Inc.

Elizabeth N. Jochum ●

R&K Enterprise Solutions, Inc.
B-419919.6, .7, .8

  • The protester alleged the Air Force’s best-value tradeoff decision was unreasonable because it consisted of a “mechanical comparison of point scores that did not take into account the underlying bases for those scores” and because the source selection authority only considered the awardee’s proposal and did not compare the merits of the offerors’ proposals.
  • GAO agreed, noting that the award determination document discusses only the awardee’s proposal, with no reference to R&K’s proposal.
  • The Agency had argued that the selection authority had relied on the evaluation board’s recommendation and rationale, but GAO found that, even if that were the case, that recommendation was “based entirely on a mechanical evaluation of point scores” without a qualitative comparison of underlying strengths and weaknesses and was therefore unreasonable.
  • GAO recommended the agency perform and document a proper best-value tradeoff.