Protest spotlight

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

Agency: Navy

Awardee: PAE Aviation and Technical Services

Protester: M7 Aerospace

What GAO found: M7 protested the Navy's award of a contract to PAE for maintenance and logistics support services for the F-5 Adversary aircraft fleet, arguing the agency "misevaluated proposals and made an unreasonable source selection."

"M7 argues that the record here is completely lacking in documentation to support the agency’s evaluation finding that all six proposals -- and more specifically its and the awardee’s proposal -- were technically equivalent," the GAO report states.

GAO finds that the record "does not include any information to support the conclusion that the agency, in making its source selection decision, performed a meaningful, qualitative assessment or critical, comparative analysis of the proposals under the technical evaluation factor or its enumerated elements."

However, there were "substantial differences" in the two companies' proposed staffing, according to GAO.

Without any explanation in the record, GAO states that it is "left to guess" at the reasonableness of the agency's conclusion that the proposals were technically equal and sustains the protest.

It recommends the Navy reevaluate all of the offerors' technical proposals and prepare a detailed record. Following that reevaluation, GAO adds, the agency should make a new source selection decision.

Read the decision.