Articles Posted in Best-Value Decision

Posted

by

In Advanced Management Strategies Group, Inc. v. United States, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, No. 25-695 (Nov. 20, 2025), Advanced Management Strategies Group, Inc. (AMSG) protested the Department of Energy’s award to Harkcon, Inc. for administrative support services related to nuclear material transport. AMSG alleged that Harkcon made a material misrepresentation by proposing its Chief Operating Officer as an on-site, full-time program manager in New Mexico, claiming that the representation was false and not credible because the individual was based in Virginia and already served as the program manager for two other active contracts. AMSG also requested to supplement the record with discovery and post-award declarations to support its claim. The Court rejected both the misrepresentation theory and the request for discovery. Notably, the Court emphasized the importance of sticking to the administrative record and relied heavily on admissions made by AMSG’s own counsel during oral argument.

Continue reading ›

Posted

by

In SRM Group, LLC, B-423695 (Sept. 25, 2025​), SRM Group, the incumbent contractor, protested the Army’s award of a contract for lodging and transportation services at Camp Robinson to BryMak & Associates. SRM argued that the agency’s past performance evaluation was flawed and that the resulting best-value tradeoff was unreasonable. At the heart of the protest was SRM’s claim that BryMak’s past performance references did not merit the same “substantial confidence” rating that SRM received. SRM challenged the relevance of BryMak’s references, the inclusion of a subcontractor’s limited experience and the agency’s treatment of SRM’s own incumbent performance. GAO rejected each of these arguments, finding the evaluation well-documented and consistent with the solicitation.

Continue reading ›

Posted

by

In Cosette Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. United States, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, No. 25-cv-279 (Nov. 17, 2025), Cosette Pharmaceuticals protested the Department of Veterans Affairs’ decision to award a contract for the drug prasugrel to Golden State Medical Supplies. Cosette argued that the VA violated the Trade Agreements Act (TAA) because Cosette was the only offeror to submit a TAA-compliant proposal. Cosette manufactured its version of the drug in Germany, a compliant country under the TAA. By contrast, the awardee’s version of the drug was manufactured in India, a non-compliant country under the TAA.

Continue reading ›

Posted

by

In QA Engineering, LLC, B-423716, B-423716.2 (Sept. 30, 2025​), QA Engineering protested the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to award a contract for the construction of a pre-engineered metal building (PEMB) to Koman Advantage. QA argued that the agency improperly found its proposal technically unacceptable because it did not address quality control for off-site fabrication, a requirement it claimed was not clearly stated in the solicitation. QA also contended that its proposal did meet this requirement and that other offerors were treated more favorably despite submitting similar responses. GAO rejected all of these claims, finding that the solicitation clearly required an off-site fabrication quality control discussion, that QA failed to provide one, and that other offerors met the requirement. The protest also raised additional arguments regarding inconsistent evaluator scoring and consensus ratings, but GAO found no merit in those claims.

Continue reading ›

Posted

by

In Castro & Company, LLC, B-423689, (Nov. 13, 2025), ​Castro & Company protested the Federal Election Commission’s (FEC) decision to award a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) to Contracts Management Enterprises (CME) for financial management and accounting support services. Castro argued that CME had an unmitigable impaired objectivity organizational conflict of interest (OCI) because one of CME’s employees worked as a contract specialist on a separate FEC contract where she was in close proximity to the source selection authority for the protested procurement. The protester also challenged multiple aspects of the agency’s technical evaluation, including findings that its proposal lacked “timeline details” and a “structured response,” both of which Castro contended were not supported by the solicitation or adequately explained by the agency. Finally, Castro asserted that the agency’s best-value tradeoff was flawed because the FEC failed to consider Castro’s lower-priced quotation when selecting among technically acceptable offerors. GAO sustained the protest, finding that the agency failed to meaningfully investigate or document the alleged OCI, that the technical evaluation was unsupported, and that the tradeoff analysis improperly omitted consideration of Castro’s quotation.

Continue reading ›

Posted

by

In Noblis MSD, LLC, B-423599 (September 11, 2025), Noblis MSD, the incumbent contractor, protested the Navy’s award of a technical support services contract to Solute, Inc. Noblis raised several arguments, including that Solute’s proposal was noncompliant because it lacked a signed Standard Form (SF) 33, that the agency unreasonably evaluated past performance and that the award decision ignored known negative performance information. GAO denied the protest in full, finding that the agency’s evaluation and award decision were reasonable and supported by the record, and offering helpful reminders about intent to be bound, evaluators’ discretion, the “too close at hand” doctrine, and the use of sworn declarations.

Continue reading ›

Posted

by

In Enviremedial Services, Inc., B-423552 (August 28, 2025), Enviremedial Services, Inc. (ESI) protested the Army Corps of Engineers’ award of a facilities maintenance contract to BryMak & Associates, Inc., alleging flaws in the agency’s price evaluation, past performance analysis and best-value tradeoff. While GAO dismissed ESI’s unbalanced pricing claim, it sustained the protest based on multiple errors and omissions in the past performance evaluation and the agency’s failure to meaningfully document its source selection rationale.

Continue reading ›

Posted

by

In AIX Tech, LLC, B-423417, et al., June 11, 2025, AIX Tech protested the award by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) of a task order to Defense Solutions Group (DSG) for strategic advisory support services, challenging the evaluation of DSG’s proposal, the best-value tradeoff decision, and alleging an undisclosed conflict of interest (OCI) tied to a personal relationship between an agency employee and the chief executive officer of DSG’s joint venture partner. GAO dismissed most of the protest as legally insufficient and denied the remainder after finding no evidence of impropriety.

Continue reading ›

Posted

by

In Blue Water Thinking, LLC v. United States, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, No. 24-1641C (March 11, 2025)​, Blue Water Thinking (BWT) protested a decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to award a Program Support Integration (PSI) contract to GoldPath Communications JV, LLC (GoldPath). BWT argued that: (1) the VA’s best-value trade-off analysis was flawed; (2) GoldPath had an organizational conflict of interest (OCI); (3) the contracting officer preselected GoldPath before conducting the trade-off analysis; and (4) the VA breached its duty to consider proposals fairly​.

Continue reading ›