Press Release GAO Bid Protest; B-414220, et al., General Revenue Corp., et al.

The following is a statement from Kenneth E. Patton, Managing Associate General Counsel for Procurement Law at GAO, regarding today’s decision resolving several protests filed by General Revenue Corp., et al., B-414220.2, et al., March 27, 2017.

On March 27, 2017, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained, in part, several protests against awards by the Department of Education (DOE) for student loan debt collection services.

The protests were filed by General Revenue Corporation, of Mason, Ohio, Account Control Technology, Inc., of Woodland Hills, California, Williams & Fudge, Inc., of Rock Hill, South Carolina, Performant Recovery, Inc., of Livermore, California, Collection Technology, Inc., of Rancho Cucamonga, California, Alltran Education, Inc., of Woodridge, Illinois, Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp., of Round Rock, Texas, Van Ru Credit Corp., of Des Plaines, Illinois, Global Receivables Solutions, Inc., of Omaha, Nebraska, Progressive Financial Services, Inc., of Tempe, Arizona, Automated Collection Services, Inc., of Nashville, Tennessee, Gatestone & Company International, Inc., of Phoenix, Arizona, Sutherland Global Services, of Reston, Virginia, Delta Management Associates, Inc., of Chelsea, Massachusetts, Allied Interstate LLC, of Plymouth, Minnesota, and Collecto, Inc. d/b/a EOS CCA, of Norwell, Massachusetts, against the award of seven contracts to Financial Management Service Investment Corp., of Rolling Meadows, Illinois, GC Services Limited Partnership, of Houston, Texas, Premiere Credit of North America, LLC, of Indianapolis, Indiana, The CBE Group, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, Transworld Systems, Inc., of Horsham, Pennsylvania, Value Recovery Holdings, LLC, of Columbus, Ohio, and Windham Professionals, Inc., of Salem, New Hampshire.  The protesters challenged the agency’s evaluation of proposals and contract award decisions under request for proposals No. ED-FSA-16-R-0009, which was issued by the DOE, for student loan debt collection services.  Each contract has a ceiling value of $417.1 million.

GAO sustained, or upheld, several of the protests in part, finding that DOE made several prejudicial errors in evaluating proposals.  These errors led DOE to make source selection decisions that GAO found were unreasonable because they were based on erroneous conclusions in support of the contracts awarded.  GAO recommended that DOE, at a minimum, reevaluate proposals and make new source selection decisions.

GAO’s decision expresses no view as to the merits of these firms’ respective proposals.  Judgments about which offeror will most successfully meet the government’s needs are reserved for the procuring agencies, subject only to statutory and regulatory requirements, such as full and open competition, and fairness to potential offerors.  GAO’s bid protest process is handled by GAO’s Office of General Counsel and examines whether procuring agencies have complied with procurement laws and regulations.

Today’s decision was issued under a protective order because the decision may contain proprietary and source selection sensitive information.  GAO has directed counsel for the parties to promptly identify information that cannot be publicly released so that GAO can expeditiously prepare and release a public version of the decision.  When the public version of the decision is available, it will be posted to our website, www.gao.gov.

For more information, please contact Kenneth E. Patton at 202-512-8205, Ralph O. White at 202-512-8278, or Chuck Young at 202-512-4800.  More information about GAO’s Bid Protest process is also available on the GAO website.

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