Federal Circuit Upholds Awardee’s High Experience Ratings; G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc. v. United States, Fed. Cir. 2020-1390

Appeal of COFC decision denying protest is affirmed. The protester argued on appeal that the agency had erred in assigning the awardee a high rating under an experience factor. The Federal Circuit found that the awardee’s previous contracts were similar in size, scope, and complexity, so the high experience rating was warranted.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) awarded a contract for security and transportation services to ISS Action, Inc. A disappointed bidder, G4S Secure Solutions, protested the award with the Court of Federal Claims. The COFC denied the protest, finding in favor of the government.

G4S appealed to the Federal Circuit. On appeal G4S argued that CBP erred in assessing ISS’s experience a High Confidence rating. G4S contended that the contracts ISS submitted to demonstrate its experience were not similar in size, scope, and complexity to the work required under the solicitation.

The Federal Circuit rejected G4S’s contentions. The contracts ISS submitted involved armed guard and security services like those described in the solicitation. Moreover, ISS’s contracts were beneficial in other respects. They reflected the ability to hire and train personnel, familiarity with and experience in related work, and the ability to maintain staff. These all supported ISS’s high confidence rating.

G4S is represented by Gerald Howard Werfel and Henry Todd Wray of Baker, Cronogue, Tolle & Werfel, LLP. ISS Action is represented by Robert Joseph Sneckenberg and Daniel Ruben Forman of Crowell & Moring. The government is represented by Lauren Moore, Jeffrey B. Clark, Tara K. Hogan, and Robert Edward Kirschman, Jr. of the Department of Justice.

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