The Government Accountability Office released yesterday its protest denial decision in the Department of Energy’s most recent decision to award the support services contract for the Office of Legacy Management to Navarro Research and Engineering. Portage and a team of Wastren Advantage-Stoller had each filed challenges over DOE’s decision in late January to name Navarro the winner of the new contract, valued at approximately $250 million. In the decision, GAO found that the Department did not err in considering past performance outside of that listed in the companies’ proposals as well as not erring in his evaluation of the bids. “We find that the agency’s consideration of this past performance information was reasonable,” the decision said. “The RFP informed offerors that past performance ‘[r]eferences other than those identified by the Offeror may be contacted by the Government with the information received used in evaluation.’ Therefore, offerors were on notice that the agency could consider past performance information not found in the firm’s proposal.”
The GAO’s decision is the latest twist in DOE’s lengthy procurement for the new Legacy Management support services contract, which has been set aside for small businesses and attracted heavy industry interest. In April 2013, DOE chose Portage out of eight bids as the winner of the new contract. That decision was met with protests to the GAO by the WAI team and Navarro. In response, DOE chose to take corrective action and re-evaluate all eight bids, leading to a decision in early 2014 to again select Portage as the winner of the follow-on contract. The WAI team and Navarro again filed protests with the GAO over DOE’s decision, and in the spring of 2014, the GAO sustained Navarro’s protest but denied WAI-Stoller’s. The GAO’s decision led DOE to again re-evaluate the bids submitted, and in late January, the Department shifted course and chose Navarro as the winner of the follow-on contract. It remains unclear if the two companies will seek any additional recourse to further contest Navarro’s win.
