A&D Fire Protection Inc.

A firm protested a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) contract award for design and construction services, contending that the awardee had a higher cost and technical tradeoff. GAO held that VA's tradeoff analysis was primarily based upon the its erroneous judgement that the awardee had offered an accelerated performance schedule, which outweighed the protester's price advantage. Accordingly, the protest was sustained, and GAO recommended that VA (1) appoint a new evaluation team to reevaluate the proposals, (2) make a new award selection, (3) direct the awardee to halt performance of the contract until VA can perform a new cost and technical tradeoff in accordance with the terms of solicitation, (4) if a firm other than the awardee is selected for award, VA should terminate the awardee's contract and make award to that firm, and (5) reimburse the protester the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing the protest.