Highlights
Bahrain Maritime & Mercantile International BSC (BMMI) protests the award of a contract to Ocean Fair International for full line food distribution for Southwest Asia, Zone 1, under request for proposals (RFP) No. SPM300-11-R-0005, issued by the Defense Logistics Agency.
DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This redacted version has been approved for public release.
Decision
Matter of: Bahrain Maritime & Mercantile International BSC
File: B-407575; B-407575.2
Date: January 8, 2013
DECISION
Bahrain Maritime & Mercantile International BSC (BMMI) protests the award of a contract to Ocean Fair International for full line food distribution for Southwest Asia, Zone 1, under request for proposals (RFP) No. SPM300-11-R-0005, issued by the Defense Logistics Agency.
We dismiss the protest because the agency has notified us that it intends to take corrective action in response to the protest. Specifically, the agency has advised us that it plans to issue an amendment to the RFP clarifying the manner in which the experience/past performance factor will be evaluated; conduct a limited reevaluation; and reconsider its award decision in light of the results of the reevaluation.
We recognize that the protester has objected to the agencys proposed corrective action on the grounds that the agency has explained neither the purpose nor the content of the planned amendment and why an amendment is necessary to correct the agencys unreasonable evaluation; the agency should not issue an amendment to the solicitation that is unnecessary to correct the flaws in the initial evaluation; and if for some reason an amendment is necessary to describe the evaluation criteria accurately, offerors should be permitted to submit new proposals. While the agency indicates that it does not anticipate reopening negotiations or requesting additional information it has also indicated that the precise nature of the corrective action has yet to be finalized. Thus, we do not consider the agency to have definitively put the protester on notice that it will not be conducting discussions or permitting offerors to submit revised proposals in connection with the issuance of the contemplated amendment. Until the agency has decided on the content of, and issued, the amendment in question, the protesters objections are premature.
We also recognize that the protester has requested that we recommend that the agency pay it the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing its protest, including attorneys fees. We regard the representation of agency counsel (in her email message of January 4, 2012) that BMMIs claimed costs should be properly submitted to the contracting officer and will be reviewed and handled as appropriate as an acknowledgment that the protester should be reimbursed for its reasonable protest costs. Moreover, we note that the standard for entitlement to protest costs is presumed to have been met where, as in this case, agency corrective action is taken in response to outcome prediction alternative dispute resolution conducted by a GAO attorney after the agency report has been filed. National Opinion Research CenterCosts, B-289044.3, Mar. 6, 2002, 2002 CPD ¶ 55. Therefore, the protester should file its claim for such costs within 60 days of receiving this decision.
When an agency proposes to reevaluate proposals and reconsider its award decision in light of the results of the reevaluation, the agency action renders a protest of the initial award decision academic. Since it is not our practice to consider academic questions, Dyna-Air Engg Corp., B-278037, Nov. 7, 1997, 97-2 CPD ¶ 132, the protest is dismissed.
Susan A. Poling
General Counsel
This is a verbatim capture of GAO's own published decision. Nothing is summarized or reworded, and the sections run in the order GAO wrote them. One thing is moved: GAO collects its numbered notes at the foot of the document, and each is shown here under the paragraph that first cites it, with its own number carrying you back. A note the decision never cites stays where GAO printed it.