Omran Holding Group v. United States

128 Fed. Cl. 273, 2016 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1283, 2016 WL 4916957
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedSeptember 14, 2016
Docket15-1570C
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 128 Fed. Cl. 273 (Omran Holding Group v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Omran Holding Group v. United States, 128 Fed. Cl. 273, 2016 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1283, 2016 WL 4916957 (uscfc 2016).

Opinion

Pre-Award Bid Protest; Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction; Standing; RCFC 12(b)(1); Substantial Chance Test.

OPINION AND ORDER 1

CAMPBELL-SMITH, Chief Judge

This is a pre-award bid protest. The procuring agency is the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Transatlantic Afghanistan District (Government, agency, USACE, or defendant). Omran Holding Group is an unsuccessful offeror (Omran, OHG, or plaintiff). Defendant issued a solicitation for the construction of various structures at Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Defendant found that Omran’s proposal was nonresponsive, and accordingly, did not *275 evaluate it. Specifically, defendant found that Omran failed to satisfy the solicitation requirement that it maintain “installation access,” 2 defined as authorization to access U.S. military installations. Defendant determined that Omran lacked the requisite installation access after checking the Joint Contingency Contracting System (JCCS), a vendor vetting database.

Omran seeks a permanent injunction declaring that the revocation of Omran’s installation access was arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with law, and that the revocation decision is null, void, and unenforceable. Further, Omran asks this court to require defendant to change its status in the JCCS database to “approved,” and to enjoin defendant from finding its proposal to be nonresponsive.

Defendant filed a motion to dismiss Om-ran’s complaint for lack of jurisdiction under Rule 12(b)(1) of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims (RCFC), arguing that Omran cannot demonstrate prejudice and thus it lacks standing to bring this bid protest. In the alternative, defendant seeks dismissal of Omran’s complaint under Rule 12(b)(6), arguing that plaintiffs claims are nonjusticiable, and thus fail to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

Defendant’s motion is fully briefed and ripe for decision. The court did not hear oral argument.

For the reasons explained below, the court GRANTS defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, and DENIES AS MOOT defendant’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

I, Background

A. Solicitation

On November 13, 2015, defendant issued solicitation number W5J9JE-16-R-0005 for a “Force Protection Upgrade project at Hamid Karzai International Airport ... Kabul, Afghanistan, in support of the Afghan Air Force and Afghan Special Mission Wing ... missions.” La Rosa Decl. 3 ¶¶ 2-3; A6. 4 The project involved the construction of various structures and facilities to improve the security of the airport perimeter. A4-A5.

The procurement was conducted on a “lowest priced technically acceptable” basis. A21. The Technical Proposal included three factors, Experience, Past Performance, and Key Personnel. A26. “To be considered technically acceptable, no technical factor in the proposal may be rated as ‘Unacceptable.’ The failure of a proposal to meet all of the requirements under any Factor will result in a technically unacceptable rating and preclude award.” A40.

The solicitation provided that award would be made to the one offeror whose proposal conformed to the solicitation requirements, was evaluated as technically acceptable, provided the lowest evaluated price, and who the contracting officer deemed responsible. A40.

Solicitation requirements included compliance with clause 5152.225-5916 and several required registrations.

1. Clause 5152.225-5916—Mandatory , Eligibility for Installation Access

Clause 5152.225-5916—Mandatory Eligibility for Installation Access (OCT 2015)—was incorporated in the solicitation by full text. A89-A90; La Rosa decl. ¶ 7. As relevant to *276 this matter, clause 5152.225-5916 is included below:

(a) U.S. and Coalition Commanders possess inherent authority to maintain law and order, provide security, and impose discipline necessary to protect the inhabitants of U.S. and/or Coalition installations, U.S. and Coalition personnel operating outside of installations, and U.S. or Coalition-funded developmental projects in Afghanistan. This authority allows commanders to administratively and physically control access to installations and/or project sites, and to bar contractors—including prime contractors, subcontractors at any tier, and any employees, from an installation or site. A commander’s inherent force protection (FP) authority is independent of an agency’s contracting authority, and it may not be superseded by any contractual term or provision.
(b) The prime Contractor/Vendor acknowledges that: submission of a bid, offer, or a proposal... requires that the prime Contractor/Vendor ... remain eligible during the entire period of contract performance to include any warrant period—for installation access to a U.S. and/or Coalition installation, regardless of whether the performance will take place on or off a U.S. or Coalition installation.
(c) To be eligible for installation access, Contractors ... are required to register for installation access in'the Joint Contingency Contracting System (JCCS) and are responsible for keeping the information in this system updated at all times. ... The offeror must be registered, approved, and eligible for installation access prior to award, and remain eligible for installation access for the life of the contract.
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(2) Failure to be approved in JCCS— and thereby be eligible for installation access ..., may render the offeror/con-tractor ineligible for award or continued performance. Additionally, any firm that is declared ineligible for installation access will be deemed non-responsible until such time as that firm is again deemed eligible by the appropriate access approval authority.
(d)Installation access determinations arise from the Combatant Commander’s inherent authority and are separate and distinct from any law, regulation, or policy regarding suspension and debarment authority. Contractor queries or requests for reconsideration related to U.S. or Coalition installation base access eligibility must be directed to the authority responsible for base access decisions.

A89-A90 (clause 6152.225-5916) (emphasis added).

Mr. La Rosa declared that in its contracting efforts, the USACE is required to comply with the direction provided in two memoran-da issued by United States Central Command (USCENTCOM or CENTCOM) Joint Theater Support Contracting Command (C-JTSCC) in Afghanistan and Department of Defense (DoD) Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. La Rosa deck ¶¶ 7-9 (citing. La Rosa deck Exs. 4-5, A99-A106).

On November 27, 2014, the CENTCOM 5 Joint Theater Support Contracting Command issued a memorandum to “All DoD Heads of Contracting Activities.” La Rosa deck Ex. 5, A103-A106.

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128 Fed. Cl. 273, 2016 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1283, 2016 WL 4916957, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/omran-holding-group-v-united-states-uscfc-2016.