The Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied two protests filed over RSI EnTech’s roughly $191 million contract to provide support services for the Energy Department’s Office of Legacy Management, which the challengers called unrealistically cheap.
The Energy Department previously said the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract could be worth up to $1 billion over five years, depending on how many tasks were ordered. Both incumbent Navarro Research and Engineering and LATA-Atkins Technical Services (LATS) filed protests in March on the heels of RSI’s contract award.
In written orders issued June 10, redacted versions of which were posted online Wednesday, the GAO dismissed both protests.
The $191 million bid by Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based RSI significant undercut LATA-Atkins at $273 million and Navarro’s $284 million offer. The current small business set-aside contract with Oak Ridge-based Navarro is worth $366 million.
Navarro argued RSI proposed “unrealistic compensation packages.” Albuquerque, N.M.-based LATA-Atkins Technical Services used stronger language, saying “rock-bottom price and its attendant rock-bottom wages” will hobble the new vendor’s efforts to recruit and retain qualified staff.
But Legacy Management’s request for proposals (RFP) last year did not call for any “price realism analysis,” the GAO said. The congressional watchdog also said LATA-Atkins did not argue that RSI intends to skirt Service Contract Act requirements for adequate wage rates for its employees. The law generally seeks to ensure that workers on federal contracts don’t make less than the prevailing wage for their jobs in a given locality.
The Energy Department Office of Legacy Management evaluated proposals based on five major factors, including price. RSI EnTech equaled LATA-Atkins and Navarro on the non-price factors, with “outstanding” rankings from Legacy Management on technical/capabilities approach; management approach; and teaming approach. The Energy Department branch said the top three bidders merited “significant confidence” based on past performance for the agency.
The GAO noted that the Office of Legacy Management received five offers for the work. The other two applicants were not identified in the decisions.
The site selection authority within the Legacy Management office particularly liked RSI’s approach to cross-training staff and its central platform to integrate environmental, safety, health, and quality assurance procedures into contract work, the GAO said.
“Based on these advantages, and because RSI’s proposed price was lower than LATS’s proposed price, the agency determined that RSI’s proposal represented the best value,” the GAO noted.
The Government Accountability Office said in both orders it “does not reevaluate proposals or substitute our judgment for that of the agency.” Instead, it reviews the record to see if the agency evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the evaluation criteria and applicable federal regulations.
Navarro Research and Engineering tried to argue the Energy Department was too lax in its non-price evaluation, handing out good scores all around. Four of the five applicants were rated “outstanding” and all five received “significant confidence” scores for past performance. But the GAO said it saw “nothing inherently unreasonable about all competitors receiving high or similar ratings.”
The GAO emphasized that the Energy Department determined “Navarro offered the third-best proposal.” As a result, “it would not be next in line for award if its protest were sustained.”
Navarro declined to comment on the GAO results as did Atkins Nuclear. Los Alamos Technical Associates (LATA) and RSI EnTech could not be reached for comment. The decisions can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Under the new agreement, RSI will support the Office of Legacy Management mission to fulfill post-closure responsibilities at 100 cleanup locations across the United States and Puerto Rico, including old DOE Office of Environmental Management nuclear sites such as Fernald in Ohio and Rocky Flats in Colorado.
The new contract covers routine inspections of various types of containment systems, maintaining soil and groundwater treatment systems, and managing numerous properties.
Founded in 1996, RSI EnTech serves major federal customers and Fortune 500 engineering and construction companies in areas such as environmental compliance and project management.
