Solicitation Did Not Direct Offerors To Propose Less Experienced, Lower Cost Personnel; GAO B-414055, Noblis Inc.

Protest alleging the agency misled the offeror into submitting a low-cost proposal is denied, where the protester exercised its independent judgment in constructing a proposal it believed to be competitive; and protest challenging the agency’s cost realism methodology and calculations is denied, where the agency’s use of the standard deviation methodology was reasonable and any errors in the agency’s calculation of the standard deviation did not prejudice the protester; and protest challenging the agency’s assessment of performance risk is denied, where the solicitation advised all offerors that the results of the cost realism analysis could be used by the source selection authority to assess performance risk and the agency reasonably assessed performance risk based upon the agency’s concern about the protester’s low labor rates in a highly competitive labor market.