Midwest Metals
Highlights
Midwest Metals (Midwest) protests the issuance of a delivery order to Alpha Technologies under request for quotations (RFQ) No. W52H09-07-T-0167, issued by the Department of the Army for 90 headless pins and 800 round nuts. Midwest challenges the Army's use of the Past Performance Information Retrieval System‑Statistical Reporting (PPIRS-SR) in measuring performance risk and the evaluation of its proposal.
B-299805, Midwest Metals, July 17, 2007
Decision
Dave Murar for the protester.
Maj. Walter R. Dukes, and Pamela Kennerly-Ignatius, Esq., Department of the Army, for the agency.
Frank Maguire, Esq., and John M. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
DIGEST
Issuance of purchase order to higher-priced vendor with lower evaluated performance risk was unobjectionable where request for quotations advised that evaluation could involve tradeoff between price and performance risk, and agency concluded that successful vendor's lower evaluated performance risk made its quotation the best value despite protester's lower-quoted price.
DECISION
Midwest Metals (
The solicitation was issued on
Twelve quotations were received. The protester's quotation was low at $6,173.40, and, based on PPIRS-SR information, received a delivery score (reflecting deliveries under prior contracts) of 49 for the headless pins, and 68 for the round nuts. Alpha's quotation was the sixth lowest at $10,280.70, and it received a delivery score of 100 for both items. The contracting officer determined that
Our Bid Protest Regulations provide that a protest based upon alleged improprieties in a solicitation that are apparent prior to the deadline for receipt of offers, or quotations, must be filed before that time. 4 C.F.R. sect. 21.2(a)(1) (2007). In this respect, our timeliness rules reflect the dual requirements of giving parties a fair opportunity to present their cases and resolving protests expeditiously without unduly disrupting or delaying the procurement process. Dominion Aviation, Inc.--Recon., B-275419.4,
In reviewing a protest against an agency's evaluation of proposals, we will examine the record to determine whether the agency's judgment was reasonable and consistent with the stated evaluation criteria and applicable procurement statutes and regulations. See Shumaker Trucking & Excavating Contractors, Inc., B-290732,
The record does not support the protester's assertion that the Army based its award decision solely on past performance, without regard for price. Rather, as noted above, the record shows that the contracting officer compared Alpha's quotation, which received the highest possible past performance rating, to
The protest is denied.
Gary L. Kepplinger
General Counsel
[1] The purpose of the PPIRS-SR is to provide contracting personnel with quantifiable past performance information regarding delivery and quality, as collected from existing Department of Defense reporting systems. RFQ at 27. Delivery scores are calculated using the number of line items delivered and a weighting factor reflecting the length of time a delivery was overdue. See https://www.ppirs.gov/ppirs-sr/ppirssr.htm.
[2] To the extent