Jude & L Construction, LLC (B-423425)

You should not care.

Category: past performance questionnaires, affiliate past performance

Date: 3 July 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423425

Jude & L Construction, LLC (JLC), protested the US Air Force’s nonselection of its proposal for a multiple award IDIQ for construction services at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia. JLC challenged the agency’s past performance evaluation, arguing the agency unreasonably refused to evaluate projects performed by its corporate affiliate, which was proposed to have meaningful involvement in the resulting contract. JLC also asserted the agency should have contacted the points of contact for its past performance questionnaires, as the contracting officer previously stated the agency would seek quality information directly should PPQs were not received on time.

• Past performance of affiliates: GAO agreed with JLC that the solicitation did not preclude agency consideration of affiliate past performance and found the agency’s contrary interpretation unreasonable.
• Responsibility for PPQ submission: Despite the agency’s email statements, the solicitation unambiguously required offerors to ensure timely submission of PPQs, and imposed no obligation on the Air Force to chase down missing questionnaires.
• Competitive prejudice: GAO found that, even should the Air Force have considered affiliate references, JLC failed to provide the PPQs needed for a qualitative assessment. Thus, the “neutral confidence” rating was justified and JLC could not have been competitive for award.

Protest denied. GAO found agency error on solicitation interpretation, but JLC was not competitively prejudiced because it failed to ensure timely receipt of necessary past performance questionnaires.

Digest

Protest challenging the agency’s evaluation of the protester’s past performance as only warranting a rating of “neutral confidence” and the resulting decision not to award the protester a contract is denied. Although the agency unreasonably interpreted the solicitation to prohibit the evaluation of past performance references submitted for the protester’s corporate affiliate, the neutral confidence rating was nevertheless reasonable where the protester failed to ensure that past performance questionnaires for its affiliate’s references were timely submitted to the agency.