(Editor’s Note.  The following provides a good lesson in using caution when proposing additional items in a best value acquisition.)

In a proposal to provide digitization services to the government, SI voluntarily included an amount to provide disaster recovery services in the event of an emergency.  The agency determined that SI’s disaster recovery proposal was a strength to its proposal but was of limited value because it had not yet determined whether the extra services were needed.  The agency found both SI and Datatrac’s proposals were excellent and made the award to Datatrac based on its lower price.  SI protested the award claiming the agency should have removed the price associated with the disaster recovery before comparing its price with Datatrac in order to make an “apples to apples” comparison.  GAO disagreed stating they were unaware of any requirement in a best-value evaluation where an agency must add or delete costs of a value added feature, even one the agency finds of little value.  GAO said SI was not invited to broadly revise its disaster recovery plan because it was not considered to be a weakness and that SI made a “reasoned business judgment” to include the services (SI International, GAO, B-297381).

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