Bering Straits Professional Services, LLC (B-422869)

You should not care.

Category: Technical evaluation, process issue, cost or price evaluation

Date: 26 November 2024

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-422869

Bering Straits Professional Services, LLC (BSPS), a small business based in Anchorage, Alaska, protested DHS’s award of a contract to Akima Infrastructure Protection, LLC (AIP). The request for proposals (RFP) was for detention management, transportation, and food services at the Krome Service Processing Center in Miami, Florida. BSPS challenged DHS’s evaluation of its technical proposal and the agency’s best-value tradeoff.

The agency used a best-value tradeoff method under FAR Part 15. Despite BSPS offering a lower price, DHS rated AIP higher because of superior confidence in its technical approach. GAO found that DHS's evaluation was reasonable, citing multiple weaknesses in BSPS's technical proposal, including reliance on unspecified government-provided software for records management and misunderstandings of the contractor’s role in credible fear referrals. DHS determined that AIP’s higher-priced proposal posed less risk of unsuccessful performance, justifying the price premium.

GAO denied the protest.

Digest

Protest challenging agency evaluation of protester’s technical proposal and tradeoff decision is denied where the evaluation and tradeoff decision were reasonable and consistent with the terms of the solicitation.