The protester said the agency improperly credited the awardee for its incumbency status when evaluating corporate experience. The COFC disagreed. The agency had simply given the awardee credit for an exceedingly relevant contract.
Sparksoft Corporation v. United States, COFC No. 23-708
- Awardee’s Experience – The protester argued the SSA ignored the evaluators' findings with respect to the awardee’s experience. The evaluators found the awardee had not adequately described its experience. But the court found the SSA had considered the evaluators’ findings. The SSA had determined the problems with the awardee’s proposal were minor.
- Incumbent Experience – The protester contended that instead of evaluating experience based on the solicitation, the agency had simply decided to award the contract to the awardee based on its incumbent status. The court rejected this argument. Instead of improperly crediting the awardee for its incumbency, the agency had simply given more weight to a highly relevant contract.
- Section 508 – The solicitation required compliance with Section 508, which mandates that contractors make resources available to federal employees with disabilities. The protester argued the awardee hadn’t demonstrated compliance with Section 508. The court found to the extent the awardee had not demonstrated compliance, the problem was due to the software the agency mandated, and not necessarily the awardee’s approach. Moreover, even if the awardee had not fully complied with Section 508, this didn’t make its proposal unacceptable.
- Protester’s Technical Approach – The protester objected to the evaluation of its technical proposal. The protester alleged the agency ignored portions of its proposal and disparately evaluated offerors. The court characterized these arguments as “smoke and mirrors.” The protester had not submitted a well-written proposal. As to disparate treatment, the protester had not shown its proposal was substantively indistinguishable from the awardee’s.
The protester is represented by David B. Dixon, Meghan D. Doherty, Robert C. Starling, Toghrul M. Shukurlu, and Aleksey R. Dobbs of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. The awardee is represented by James J. McCullough, Michael J. Anstett, and Katherine L. St. Romain of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. The government is represented by Stephen J. Smith of the Department of Justice and Douglas Kornreich of the Department of Health and Human Services.
--Case summary by Craig LaChance, Senior Editor
COFC - Sparksoft