On May 19, 2017, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained a protest filed by Pinnacle Solutions, Inc. (Pinnacle) challenging its exclusion from the competitive range in NASA procurement for aircraft logistics, integration, configuration management, and engineering services. GAO concluded that NASA had unreasonably evaluated and assigned weaknesses to Pinnacle’s proposal and, as is relevant here, excluded Pinnacle from the competitive range based on “unreasoned distinctions[.]”
The RFP contemplated the evaluation of proposals on two non-price factors: Mission Suitability and Past Performance. The Mission Suitability factor consisted of three subfactors, Management Approach, Technical Approach, and Safety & Health Approach which were allocated point values of 700, 150, and 150 points, respectively. Per the source selection plan, the points corresponded to adjectival ratings: an Excellent was worth 91-100 percent of the points, a Very Good was worth 71-90 percent of the points, a Good was worth 51-70 percent of the points, a Fair was worth 31-50 percent of the points, and a Poor was worth 0-30 percent of the points.
Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2017/07/gao-reasoned-judgment-required-establishing-competitive-range/
