RFP Did Not Require Offerors to Propose Same Approach Used by Protester on Incumbent Contract; GAO B-412795.2, Concurrent Technologies Corporation

Protest challenging the agency’s waiver of organizational conflicts of interest is denied, where agency reasonably concluded a nondisclosure agreement and other safeguards negotiated between the protester and awardee mitigated any potential OCI, and where the waiver was consistent with FAR requirements; and protest challenging the agency’s conclusion that the awardee did not violate the Procurement Integrity Act is denied, where the agency’s investigation was conducted in accordance with FAR procedures; and protest challenging the agency’s affirmative determination of responsibility for the awardee is denied, where the contracting officer considered the findings of the OCI investigation; and protest challenging the evaluation of the offerors’ technical proposals is denied, where offerors were not required to conform their proposals to the protester’s approach on the incumbent contract, and where the agency reasonably identified weaknesses with the protester’s approach, even though it utilized this approach without criticism on the incumbent contract; and protest challenging the agency’s cost realism evaluation is denied where the evaluation reasonably addressed each offerors’ unique technical approach, and where the final evaluation reflected the consensus judgment of the evaluation team, and did not specifically address one evaluator’s concerns with the awardee’s approach; and protest challenging the award decision is denied where the record shows that the agency reasonably concluded that the protester’s higher-rated proposal did not merit the associated cost premium.