Pond Security Service GmbH

The procurement

The State Department bought local guard services for U.S. Mission facilities in Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and Munich) through an IDIQ contract with a maximum value of €240,000,000, using a best-value tradeoff in which the transition and performance plan was the most important factor. Putz Security AG won at an evaluated price of €165,509,053, against Pond's €236,733,395.

The protest

Pond received only a Satisfactory rating on the most important factor. Evaluators had flagged that Pond proposed additional key personnel, overhead positions, equipment and other resources beyond the RFP's requirements. Pond argued the agency applied an unstated evaluation criterion by penalizing it for offering more than the RFP required.

The agency’s answer

State responded that the RFP's rating definitions built in the risk of unsuccessful performance, and evaluators found Pond's unjustified extras could include excessive or inflated costs beyond what successful performance required. The agency also noted it had asked Pond during discussions to justify the additional key personnel positions, and Pond kept its approach without adequately explaining how the added resources benefited the government.

What decided it

The concern was reasonably encompassed by a stated factor, because an agency may always consider risk intrinsic to the criteria.

GAO denied the unstated-criteria ground. Agencies must identify significant evaluation factors but need not spell out every aspect of each factor, and they may consider unstated matters reasonably related to or encompassed by the stated criteria, including risk inherent in an offeror's approach. Assessing whether Pond's unjustified additional resources introduced risk was a reasonable part of evaluating its transition and performance plan.