(Editor’s Note.  The following demonstrates the need for the government to disclose its evaluation factors and its rationale for best value tradeoffs even under some commercial item acquisitions and simplified procurements.)

An acquisition for a commercial item using simplified acquisition procedures (SAP) required a written proposal addressing numerous non-price evaluating factors such as past performance, quality control plans, etc. An unsuccessful bidder protested the award asserting the agency erred in not disclosing the evaluation factors to be used and demonstrating whether the awardee’s technical superiority justified its higher bid price.  The Army claimed agencies are not required to advise offerors of the relative weight of evaluation factors when using SAP under FAR Part 13.

The GAO sustained the protest stating though it agreed SAP did not require disclosing evaluation factors, the Army’s failure to divulge them was unreasonable because the need to prepare written proposals with multiple evaluation factors was not “simplified” and made the procurement “virtually undistinguishable from the negotiated procurements” covered by FAR Part 15.  Further, even commercial item acquisitions using SAP require a rationale describing the bases for tradeoffs when a written proposal is submitted (Finlen Complex Inc., GAO, B-288280).

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