Post-award protest challenging the agency’s evaluation of a proposal is dismissed for lack of standing where the protester was the seventh-ranked proposal and made no attempt to differentiate its proposal from other higher-ranked proposals, and thus could not prove it had a substantial chance of award.
Zeidman Technologies Inc. bid on an Air Force solicitation issued under the Small Business Innovation Research program. The solicitation sought proposals to research an Integrated Code Base and High Performance Embedded Computing Tool. Ten offerors, including Zeidman, submitted proposals. The Air Force found Zeidman ineligible for award because it did not propose relevant technology.
Zeidman filed a GAO protest challenging the Air Force’s rejection of its proposal. In response, the Air Force took corrective action, agreeing to fully evaluate Zeidman’s proposal as if it had been technically responsive. The Air Force determined that Zeidman’s proposal was among the lowest-rated and thus not eligible for award. Zeidman then filed a protest with the COFC. Zeidman moved for judgment on the administrative record. The government filed a cross-motion, or in the alternative, a motion to dismiss for lack of standing.
The court found the government’s motion to dismiss compelling. On a scale of 1 to 100, Zeidman’s proposal had received technical scores in the 60s. Six other offerors who were rated ahead of Zeidman received scores in the 80s and 90s. Zeidman had not demonstrated that those offerors could not meet the Air Force’s requirements, and Zeidman made no real effort to distinguish its proposal from other offerors’. The court reasoned that Zeidman had not made any evidence-based argument that its proposal would have merited an improved rank but for agency errors. Accordingly, Zeidman did not have a substantial chance of receiving award and therefore lacked standing to maintain the protest.
The court denied Zeidman’s motion for judgment on the administrative record but granted the government’s motion to dismiss.
Zeidman is represented by Elizabeth Pipkin and James Giachetti. The government is represented by Erin K. Murdock-Park, Chad A. Readler, Robert E. Kirschman, Jr., and Claudia Burke of the U.S. Department of Justice as well as Christopher S. Cole of the U.S. Air Force.
