KBR Services, LLC (B-422839)

Category: Collective bargaining agreement (CBA)

Date: 22 November 2024

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-422839

You should not care.

KBR Services, LLC protested the terms of a Navy solicitation for base operation support services at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, arguing that the solicitation understated the Navy's needs, failed to ensure equal competition, and did not require sufficient transparency about labor costs.

KBR challenged the solicitation’s lack of a requirement for offerors to commit to labor rates consistent with incumbent wages and seniority bonuses under a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). GAO denied the protest, finding that the Navy reasonably defined its needs by requiring compliance with Djiboutian labor laws and the CBA, and that the solicitation provided sufficient information for offerors to compete intelligently. GAO also held that KBR, as an incumbent, was not an interested party to claim that other offerors lacked adequate information.

Digest

1. Protest challenging the terms of the solicitation as understating the agency’s actual need and preventing offerors from competing intelligently and equally is denied where the protester fails to demonstrate solicitation improprieties.
2. Protester is not an interested party to argue that the solicitation does not provide other offerors adequate information regarding labor rates.