Skip to main content

Incumbent Contractor Alleged Award Was Unlawful

B-192125 May 21, 1979
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

Joule Technical Corporation protested the award of a contract to Dynalectron, Inc. by the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland. Joule, the incumbent contractor, contended that the award was unlawful because of substantial irregularities in the procurement process, including a nonresponsive best and final offer by Dynalectron, a defective wage determination incorporated into the request for proposals, arbitrary evaluations of proposals, and a possible conflict of interest by a member of the evaluation team. It was determined that the successful offeror was not guilty of "wage busting" if the incumbent's retained employees are reclassified to lower paying jobs with different duties and responsibilities. However, where no statute, regulation, or statement of policy in existence at the time the solicitation was issued precluded wage busting, no legal impediment existed to prevent lowering wages for incumbent employees even if the reduction could be categorized as wage busting. While the offeror was not legally obligated to pay wages paid by the incumbent, where such an offeror's proposal expressly stated labor rates proposed were based on current wage rates for incumbent personnel, the contracting officer should have taken such a statement into account in consideration of proposed costs. The suggestion that there may have been an impropriety in the proposal evaluation because one member of the evaluation process was hired by the successful offeror was not substantiated by the record, which indicated only that the awardee learned of the member's retirement plans and made an employment offer only after the contract award. Where the agency advised that the option for the second year's contract performance would not be excercised but that the initial contract would be extended only for a limited period necessary to solicit and award the second year's requirements, GAO did not need to recommend other corrective action. The protest was sustained in part and denied in part.

Downloads

GAO Contacts

Office of Public Affairs