CIMA JV; G-W Management Services, LLC; Tidewater-PEM JV LLC (B-422813; B-422813.2; B-422813.3)

Category: Cost or price evaluation, past performance

Date: October 28, 2024

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-422813

You should not care.

Three small business joint ventures—CIMA JV, G-W Management Services, LLC, and Tidewater-PEM JV LLC—protested a Navy award for construction services for the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) in the DC area. The protestors challenged the Navy’s price evaluations, arguing that the winning bids were unrealistically low and should have been rejected based on inadequate pricing compared to the IGCE They also contended that the evaluation of their past performance was flawed, with CIMA specifically arguing that it should have received a higher performance confidence rating.

GAO found no merit in the price evaluation argument, determining that the solicitation did not require a price realism analysis for solicited fixed-price contracts. The protestors’ contention conflated price realism (concerned with overly low bids potentially affecting performance quality) with price reasonableness, which only ensures prices are fair and not too high.. GAO also upheld the Navy’s past performance evaluation of CIMA’s proposal, noting that Navy considered CPARS data in accordance with the solicitation.

The protest was denied.

Digest

Protests asserting that awardees should have been rejected based on low prices are dismissed where the solicitation did not require a price realism evaluation. Protest challenging the evaluation of protester’s past performance is denied where it was reasonable and consistent with the terms of the solicitation.