22nd Century Technologies, Inc.—Costs (B-422659.4)

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Category: Protest costs

Date: 14 January 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-422659.4

22nd Century Technologies, Inc., sought reimbursement of its protest costs after the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC) took corrective action in response to its challenge of a call order award to Lamb Informatics Limited for IT infrastructure support services. The firm argued it was entitled to full reimbursement because the agency unduly delayed corrective action on its clearly meritorious best value determination challenge, and its other protest grounds were intertwined with that issue.

Best-value determination: GAO found 22nd Century’s challenge to the agency’s inadequate documentation of its best value determination was clearly meritorious. AOUSC had failed to compare the relative merits of competing quotations despite both vendors receiving identical non-price ratings and having near-identical pricing. GAO’s outcome prediction alternative dispute resolution (ADR) indicated that it would sustain this protest ground, prompting AOUSC to take corrective action.

Severability of protest grounds: GAO denied reimbursement for other protest grounds, including challenges to the agency’s exchanges with vendors, evaluation of corporate experience, and responsibility determination. It found these grounds were not intertwined with the best-value determination issue and were not independently clearly meritorious.

The request for full reimbursement of protest costs was denied; GAO granted reimbursement only for costs related to the best value determination, as the others were severable and not clearly meritorious.

Digest

Request that GAO recommend reimbursement of protest costs is denied where the request concerns protest challenges that were not intertwined with the meritorious protest ground or otherwise independently clearly meritorious.