Best-value battle comes down to price
By
Nick Wakeman
By Light submitted a fine technical proposal, but so did its competitor. To pick a winner, DISA had no choice but look at price.
When explaining how they do a best-value evaluation, agencies don’t have to be verbose they just have to be clear.
That’s the message from a recently released Government Accountability Office decision denying a protest by By Light Professional IT Services.
By Light challenged a DISA award to NES Associates for support services for the Defense Department’s information network. The task order was made under DISA’s Global Information Grid Services Management Engineering, Transition and Architecture multiple-award contract.
Among By Lights challenges was a charge that the agency failed to adequately document its best-value tradeoff decision.
DISA found that the technical proposals were equal and made its best-value tradeoff decision based on NES’ slightly lower price of $38.98 million, compared to By Light’s bid of $39.2 million.
By Light argues that the agency’s analysis was “merely mechanically counted strengths.” They also allege that it was unreasonable to consider the two proposals technically equal. By Light alleges that its technical proposal should have been rated higher because its bid exceeded the requirements in the solicitation.
The solicitation required bidders to meet DISA standards. By Light argues that it should have received a strength because it used commercial standards that met the requirements of the DISA standards. DISA viewed this not as exceeding the solicitation’s requirements but simply as By Light’s approach to addressing the requirements in the RFP.
In other words, the agency didn’t give By Light’s proposal extra weight for its use of commercial standards.
GAO found that while DISA’s best value decision was brief, it was not a mechanical process. The agency did discuss the individual merits of the two proposals. The strengths of the proposals, while different, brought the same level of benefit to the government.
And as we’ve seen repeatedly, if the agency can document its decision, it’ll prevail nine times out of 10.
Unfortunately for By Light, this competition came down to price. But this is not a lowest price, technically acceptable contract in disguise. By Light might think so, but the GAO decisions describes a technical battle that was essentially a draw. And after that it is all about price.