You should care.

Category: Protest costs, best value tradeoff, timeliness, severability

Date: 14 July 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423203.3

Delphinus Engineering, Inc., protested the US Navy’s contract award to Prism Maritime, LLC, pursuant to an RFP for alteration installation team (AIT) services and engineering agent support. The Navy initially awarded Prism a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, citing its technical superiority and experience with industrial installations and warehousing as worth a price premium. Delphinus protested on several fronts, principally arguing the best value tradeoff was flawed, because both firms were assessed similar strengths, yet the Navy treated Prism’s experience as uniquely advantageous. The Navy initially defended its process but filed a corrective action only after Delphinus submitted detailed comments and supplemental arguments. This delay prompted Delphinus to seek protest costs.

Flawed best value tradeoff as a discriminator: GAO found the Navy’s best value decision to be based on an incorrect belief that Prism held a unique strength for industrial installation and warehousing support—attributes the record showed both offerors shared. The Navy failed to explain how Prism’s experience was superior to Delphinus’s in this respect. This clear factual error was central to the tradeoff and prejudiced Delphinus.

Promptness of corrective action: The protest ground was raised in Delphinus’s initial protest, but the Navy delayed corrective action past the agency report deadline. GAO considers corrective action timely when done before the agency report is due; here, the delay was found unjustified given the meritorious nature of the protest.

Severability of other issues: Delphinus also protested technical and cost evaluations, and misleading discussions. GAO found these grounds not clearly meritorious and severable, as they rested on distinct facts and legal theories.

GAO sustained Delphinus’s request for protest cost reimbursement tied to the best value tradeoff challenge, but denied costs for other issues.

Digest

Request that GAO recommend reimbursement of protest costs is granted where initial protest arguments challenging the best‑value tradeoff decision were clearly meritorious and where the agency unduly delayed taking corrective action. Reimbursement of costs are not recommended with respect to issues concerning the agency’s technical evaluation, cost evaluation, or the allegation of misleading discussions where such issues were not clearly meritorious and are readily severable from the challenge to the agency’s best‑value tradeoff decision.