HESCO protested the issuance of the purchase order to this Office. The agency issued the purchase order to JSF as the responsible offeror submitting the lowest-priced, technically-acceptable offer (although later, during the debriefing, the agency incorrectly informed HESCO that the awardee was J&S Franklin, Ltd, which is an affiliate of JSF). The agency’s evaluation also found that the awardee’s proposed RAID or equal product met the requirement for built rails for easy deployment, because the proposal specification sheet described the offered product as “easy to deploy by pulling open, positioning and filling.” AR, Tab 16, Salient Characteristics of Awardee’s Proposed Products, referencing AR, Tab 16.a-01 REF d, Awardee Spec Sheet, at 1 (agency emphasis added to awardee’s proposal). Similarly, the agency evaluated the awardee’s offered CART or equal product as meeting the solicitation’s requirement that deployment be accomplished in a maximum of 60 seconds, where the agency’s evaluation and the awardee’s proposal both described the proposed product as “apid deployment.” See AR, Tab 16, Salient Characteristics of Awardee’s Proposed Products, referencing AR, Tab 16.a-01 REF a, Awardee Spec Sheet, at 1 (noting that the offered product is a “apid deployment” unit). With respect to the deployment of the RAID or equal product in a maximum of 60 seconds, the agency evaluated the awardee’s offered product as “apid deployment.” AR, Tab 16, Salient Characteristics of Awardee’s Proposed Products, referencing AR, Tab 16.a-01 REF a, Awardee Spec Sheet, at 2 (noting that the offered product is a “apid deployment” unit). The agency evaluated the awardee’s proposed products as providing the required salient characteristics. HESCO’s proposal was evaluated as technically acceptable. AR, Tab 11, Award Determination Summary, at 1. The agency received two proposals by the solicitation closing date of September 23, 2017. The RAID or equal product was required to contain “uilt rails inside for easy deployment.” Id. Both products were required to be deployed in a maximum of 60 seconds. For firms offering “or equal” products, the solicitation identified many salient characteristics, three of which are relevant to this protest. The RFP required delivery of two types of HESCO brand name or equal earth-filled barriers-CART and RAID, as marketed by HESCO. Offerors were required to provide the following documentation to demonstrate past performance manufacturing earth-filled barriers that have been delivered within the past 5 years: company name, contract number, total dollar value, contract award date, title of contract, description of project, and period of performance. The RFP advised offerors that past performance would be evaluated in accordance with FAR provision 52.212-1, Instruction to Offerors-Commercial Items, which provides that, where a solicitation contains past performance as an evaluation criterion, offers “must show” past performance information that “include recent and relevant contracts for the same or similar items,” as well as relevant information about the contract references. Offerors were required to include the following documentation of experience in their proposals: the title of the government project or contract, a brief description of the work completed, the client’s name, the period of contract performance, and the value of the contract. With respect to the prior experience subfactor, the RFP required offerors to demonstrate at least 2 years of experience, within the last 5 years, manufacturing earth-filled barriers for the government. All of the technical subfactors and past performance were evaluated as acceptable or unacceptable. The technical capability factor contained five subfactors: training, prior experience, evidence of laboratory environmental and performance testing, documentation of testing, and an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification for quality management systems (ISO 9001:2008). Agency Report (AR), Tab 4, RFP, at 5, 7-8. The RFP, issued under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items, and part 13, Simplified Acquisition Procedures, sought the issuance of a purchase order for HESCO brand name or equal earth-filled barriers to the responsible offeror submitting the lowest-priced proposal that satisfied all of the terms and conditions of the solicitation, considering the following evaluation factors: technical capability, price, and past performance. HESCO Bastion Ltd., of Leeds, United Kingdom, requests that we recommend it be reimbursed the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing its protest of the issuance of a purchase order to JSF Systems, LLC (JSF), of Washington, DC, under request for proposals (RFP) No. W91QVN-17-R-0204, issued by the Department of the Army for earth-filled barriers.
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