Todd Jacobson
WC Monitor
10/31/2014
Project Enhancement Corporation, the contractor protesting a Department of Energy technical and security support services contract for what was formally known as the Office of Health, Safety and Security, added several new complaints to its protest late last week, challenging DOE’s decision to quickly award the contract to Link Technologies after the Small Business Administration ruled that PEC did not qualify for the small business set-aside. DOE awarded the $44 million contract to Link Oct. 14, the same day that it terminated its award to PEC, and PEC has said the decision by the SBA to prohibit it from qualifying for the contract under an aerospace and military exception under the GSA professional engineering schedule “fundamentally changed” the competition. PEC said that if its proposal was disqualified, DOE should have conducted market research before awarding the contract to Link. DOE submitted a motion to dismiss PEC’s initial protest last week and filed a motion to dismiss the supplemental protest Oct. 27. PEC responded to DOE’s motions Oct 29.
PEC also noted that the SBA on Oct. 21 re-certified PEC as a small business under a $15 million size standard as of June 1, which it said would have qualified PEC to compete as a small business if the contract was recompeted. “Though PEC does not allege that this size determination would apply to the proposal PEC originally submitted for the instant Solicitation, this size determination does illustrate that if the Agency had taken the time necessary to conduct this procurement consistent with the competition obligations imposed by the FAR (even one additional week would have been sufficient given the PEC’s size was re-determined as of October 21, 2014), the Agency would have recognized PEC, its original awardee, to be among the small business offerors willing and eligible to perform the engineering services contemplated by the Solicitation,” PEC said in its supplemental protest, a copy of which was obtained by WC Monitor.
PEC: ‘Hasty’ Award Cost DOE $1 Million
PEC also noted that DOE’s decision to quickly award the contract to Link would cost the government more than $1 million. The value of the award to Link was $44.2 million, while PEC noted that the value it proposed was $43.0 million. “If the DOE had taken the time to conduct adequate market research, it would have identified other competitors ready and available to compete,” PEC said in the supplemental protest. “As a prime example, PEC would have been available to compete, and based on its prior award, would have put DOE in a position to realize a significant discount from the amount of its award to Link. PEC’s lower price would have put it in a position to win an award over Link if the DOE had taken the time to perform adequate market research. By failing to do so, the DOE prejudiced PEC.”
Link’s initial size standard challenge centered on an exception under the North American Industry Classification System size standard utilized by the PEC team. The three NAICS codes used for the procurement—professional engineering services (PES), administrative management and general management consulting services (MOBIS), and environmental consulting services (ENV)—each have a $14 million size standard, which would have initially precluded PEC from bidding, but PEC used a $35.5 million exception for military and aerospace equipment and military weapons under the professional engineering services schedule. PEC qualified for the contract under the exception and was selected for the award on May 1, but the SBA found that the exception did not apply to the procurement, disqualifying PEC’s bid. Because of confusion with the size standard, it also established a new NAICS code (MOBIS) and size standard ($14 million) for the procurement.
PEC, which is a member of the MELE team for NNSA’s technical services BPA, teamed with Protection Strategies Incorporated, MELE, ICF Incorporated, and Nuclear Safety Associates. “All we really want is a fair shot,” PEC President Rick Martinez said in a statement to NS&D Monitor. “We won it fair and square the first time and we want an opportunity to have a fair shot to win it again.” DOE extended PEC’s contract through Dec. 25 with the possibility of another three one-month options while the protest is decided. PEC’s three-month option through Dec. 25 is worth $1.25 million, and with the options, the extension could be worth $2.5 million. GAO has 100 days to decide the protest.
