APR Staffing

The procurement

In May 2017, the Bonneville Power Administration established blanket purchase agreement No. 75829 with APR Staffing, LLC for staffing services, one of several staffing BPAs it held with different vendors. The BPA had a 1-year base period and nine 1-year options, and the agency exercised three of them, carrying performance to April 2021. In September 2019 the agency told vendors it would assess their ongoing performance (service delivery, quality, historical cost, and stewardship) and consider the results in deciding whether to exercise future options.

The protest

On March 5, 2021, APR was told its BPA would not be extended past April 2021 because it ranked 9th of the 12 vendors evaluated, largely because of its Cost score. APR challenged the performance evaluation, argued that the vendor assessment was a 'procurement process' subject to GAO review, and said the evaluation errors were depriving it of its vendor status.

The agency’s answer

The agency said it did not request or receive proposals or quotations from any vendor and awarded no new contracts or agreements. It had simply decided not to exercise some vendors' BPA options based on their past performance, so it argued the dispute concerned administration of existing agreements.

What decided it

Not exercising options on an existing BPA, with no new competition, is contract administration GAO won't review.

GAO dismissed the protest as a matter of contract administration. Options are exercisable at the government's discretion, and GAO will question an option decision only where the protester shows the agency failed to follow applicable regulations or unreasonably chose to exercise an option rather than conduct a new procurement. Because no proposals or quotations were submitted and no new BPAs or contracts were awarded, APR's disagreement with its performance assessment did not turn the agency's decision into a procurement action.