Wit Associates, Inc. v. United States

62 Fed. Cl. 657, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 299, 2004 WL 2534276
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedSeptember 17, 2004
DocketNo. 04-167C
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 62 Fed. Cl. 657 (Wit Associates, Inc. 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
Wit Associates, Inc. v. United States, 62 Fed. Cl. 657, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 299, 2004 WL 2534276 (uscfc 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

ALLEGRA, Judge.

This post-award bid protest case is before the court on the parties’ cross-motions for judgment on the administrative record. For the reasons that follow, the court GRANTS defendant’s cross-motion and DENIES plaintiff’s motion, thereby concluding that no relief is appropriate herein.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND 2

On August 13, 2003, the Army and the Military Traffic Management Command of the Department of Defense issued Solicitation No. DAMT01-03-R-0025 (the “Solicitation”) for storage and traffic management of household goods and unaccompanied baggage belonging to service members and U.S. government employees on the West Coast of the United States. Central to the Solicitation was the need for secure warehouse facilities to store millions of pounds of goods and baggage. The Solicitation sought a single contractor to take over transportation management and provide storage services for the West Coast, replacing an existing system in which multiple vendors had provided those services. The contract was to be awarded for a 22-month base period, followed by the possibility of two one-year, and one six-month, option periods.

The Solicitation specified that proposals would be evaluated on a “best value” basis, according to four criteria: a threshold requirement of Proposal Acceptability, dealing with the “timeliness and completeness” of each proposal, as well as three substantive evaluation categories: Technical Capability, Quality of Past Performance, and Price Reasonableness. As to these factors, the Solicitation specified that Technical Capability and Past Performance were to be given equal weight and that Technical Capability and Past Performance combined would be given “approximately” the same weight as Price Reasonableness. The Technical Capability factor was to be scored on a scale from “Excellent (Very Low Risk)” to “Unsatisfactory (Very High Risk).” It comprised three elements: Facility Proposed, which dealt with “facilities space, safety, and security criteria” for the warehouse facility proposed by each bidder, Inventory Control and Tracking and Tracing, which examined the proposed inventory and tracking systems; and Management Approach, which consisted of “a review of key personnel, the offeror’s Quality Control Plan, and management philosophy.” Each of these sub-factors was to weigh equally in determining a proposal’s overall Technical Capability score. The Solicitation further provided that the contract would be awarded to the bidder “whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered.”

By September 17, 2003, the deadline for receiving proposals, the Army had received six proposals in response to the Solicitation, including one from plaintiff and another from [659]*659Metropolitan Van & Storage (Metropolitan), the eventual awardee.3 Plaintiffs Technical Capability proposal received a score of “Marginal/High Risk,” which, under the terms of the evaluation, indicated the Army’s judgment that “based on the information provided, there is substantial doubt that the offer- or demonstrates an adequate understanding of the services required to meet contract requirements,” and that the proposal had “high measurable risk” and “weaknesses.” (Emphasis in original). This rating was based on plaintiffs scores on the three Technical Capability sub-factors, all of which were “Marginal.” The Army identified a number of “weaknesses” in plaintiffs proposal, among them: (I) its warehouse proposal “failed to submit factual verification” of a binding commitment to obtain a warehouse facility; (ii) its inventory control, tracking, and tracing proposal failed to provide details on specific tracing procedures; (iii) its personnel proposal failed to identify certain key personnel and to provide assurances of its long-term strategy for staffing the West Coast contract; and (iv) its quality control plan did not “address all the performance objectives” specified in the Solicitation and failed to provide details explaining how certain parts of the plan would be accomplished. These weaknesses were evaluated as “risks” to the contracting agency and its clients, contributing to plaintiffs overall score of “Marginal/High Risk.”

By comparison, the Army identified few “weaknesses” and “risks” in Metropolitan’s Technical Capability proposal. The only flaw identified in Metropolitan’s warehouse facility proposal, for example, was the submission of a single incorrect insurance form. In similar vein, the only flaw identified in its personnel and management proposals was the alleged failure to identify an alternate Transportation Operational Personal Property Standard System (TOPPSS) administrator- finding that later proved to be incorrect. The relatively few and minor weaknesses in Metropolitan’s proposal led to scores of “Very Good” for the proposed facility and the inventory control proposal, “Excellent” for the personnel, quality control, and management proposals, and an overall Technical Capability score of “Very Good/Low Risk.”

With respect to the Past Performance portion of its proposal, plaintiff received a score of “Good/Low Risk,” based upon its performance in a contract for similar, but not identical, services on the East Coast of the United States. The Army’s evaluation of plaintiffs past performance indicated that it had relevant experience with the services to be provided under the contract and exceeded the minimum experience requirements. Performance evaluation questionnaires submitted by three of plaintiffs clients yielded 27 ratings of “Adequate,” 34 ratings of “Good,” and five ratings of “Excellent.” Based on these ratings, and its overall experience, the evaluators concluded that plaintiffs proposal “exceeded some of the minimum performance standards.”

Metropolitan received a Past Performance score of “Excellent/Very Low Risk.” The Army’s evaluation found that Metropolitan had relevant experience with the services to be provided under the contract and noted that its proposal exceeded the minimum experience requirements. Performance evaluation questionnaires submitted by four of Metropolitan’s clients yielded nine ratings of “Good” and 180 ratings of “Excellent.” Based on these ratings, and its overall experience, the evaluators found that Metropolitan’s proposal “clearly surpassed minimum performance standards.”

Finally, Metropolitan’s proposed price of $6,764,560 was approximately 66 percent higher than the $4,052,586 proposed by plaintiff.

On November 21, 2003, the Army notified the bidders that the contract had been awarded to Metropolitan. Upon receiving this notice, plaintiff requested and was granted a debriefing, which occurred on November 26, 2003. Two days later, on November 28, 2003, plaintiff filed a bid protest action with the General Accounting Office (subsequently renamed the Government Accountability Office (GAO)) alleging errors in the Army’s evaluation of its bid. On January 15, 2004, [660]*660plaintiff withdrew this protest, explaining that the Army had “provided clarification of critical issues about which WIT had been misinformed” relating to the winning proposal.

Nonetheless, on February 6, 2004, plaintiff filed this action alleging flaws in the terms of the Solicitation itself and in the Army’s evaluation of the proposals. Plaintiff seeks, inter alia, a permanent injunction to terminate the existing contract with Metropolitan and award it the contract; or, alternatively, to order the Army to resolicit the contract.

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Bluebook (online)
62 Fed. Cl. 657, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 299, 2004 WL 2534276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wit-associates-inc-v-united-states-uscfc-2004.