On August 19, 2019, the GAO denied a protest over the qualifications of the contractor’s proposed key personnel. ARServices, Limited, B-417561.2 (August 19, 2019) The RFP stated that key personnel resumes would be evaluated on “whether the individual’s qualifications and experience are relevant to the requirements set forth in the PWS.” The RFP defined an unacceptable rating for the key personnel subfactor as one where the “[p]roposal does not meet [the] requirements of the solicitation, and thus, contains one or more deficiencies, and/or risk of unsuccessful performance is unacceptable.” It further stated that such proposal would be unawardable.
With respect to an applications developer, the RFP state he or she must have “at a minimum: a Bachelors of Arts or Science in [a] business related discipline (logistics, industrial engineering, management, economics, finance, information technology) and at least two years’ recent experience within a [Department of Defense] organization.” Here, the key personnel did not have this exact experience, He had a Bachelor of Science degree in marine biology and working on a master’s degree in information systems. That did not cut it.
The GAO upheld the Agency’s rejection of the contractor’s proposal as unacceptable, holding that “[w]here a solicitation states that the qualifications of key personnel will be evaluated, and a proposal fails to demonstrate that key personnel hold qualifications that the solicitation requires them to possess, the proposal may be evaluated as unacceptable. ICI Servs. Corp., B-411812, B-411812.2, Sept., 21, 2015, 2015 CPD ¶ 288 at 5.
Lesson Learned: Make sure your key personnel meet the minimum requirements in the solicitation. A miss could result in a rejection of your proposal. Also, even though the Government may have approved a key personnel for a position before, does not meant that the Government will do so in a future solicitation.
ARServices, Limited, B-417561.2 (August 19, 2019)
