Protest spotlight

(This regular feature highlights protests decided by the Government Accountability Office.)

Agency: Army Contracting Command

Awardee: URS Federal Services

Protester: DynCorp International

What GAO found: DynCorp protested an Army award to URS for a contract to provide aviation field maintenance support services, contesting the agency's evaluation of the technical proposals as well as its best value tradeoff decision.

DynCorp and URS provided two of the six proposals the Army received, according to the GAO report.

"In comparing DynCorp’s and URS’s proposals, the [source selection authority] acknowledged that DynCorp’s proposal was more highly rated under the non-price factors," the report says. However, "the SSA concluded that "'the more favorable Technical rating does not warrant a $5.5 [million] (12.5%) price premium.'"

DynCorp had proposed a price of $49.4 million, compared to the URS price of nearly $44 million.

In its protest, DynCorp made six main arguments, including that the agency failed to give it credit for certain strengths, that the companies' technical proposals were evaluated "in an unequal manner" and that the best value tradeoff "failed to adequately compare the benefits of each proposal," according to the document.

"Although our decision does not address all of DynCorp’s arguments in detail, we have fully considered each of them and find that none provides a basis to sustain the protest," GAO wrote.

Read the decision: http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/676027.pdf