Warfighter Focused Logistics, Inc. (B-423546; B-423546.2)

You should not care.

Category: Simplified acquisition procedures, past performance, cost or price evaluation

Date: 5 August 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423546%2Cb-423546.2

Warfighter Focused Logistics (WFL) protested the Defense Logistics Agency’s RFQ for 1,770 vehicle tire cross chains, arguing DLA was required to order under WFL’s existing long‑term contract (LTC), that the awardee misrepresented available stock, that WFL’s past performance was unreasonably evaluated, and that the best value tradeoff was flawed. GAO dismissed the LTC challenge as a matter of contract administration and dismissed the stock‑misrepresentation claim for failure to state a valid basis. GAO then denied the remaining challenges, finding DLA reasonably relied on Supplier Performance Risk System (SPRS) and Vendor Performance History (VPH) data to assess delivery risk and adequately documented paying a premium for the awardee’s better delivery history, consistent with simplified acquisition procedures.

• LTC bypass is a matter of contract administration: Whether the agency had to use WFL’s LTC would require interpreting that existing contract and deciding breach. GAO does not review contract administration matters under CICA and its timeliness rules bar late challenges to solicitation terms.
• Evidentiary burden for misrepresentation: The allegation that the awardee “claimed” WFL’s stock was unsupported. Bare assertions or statements on “information and belief” without evidence do not meet GAO’s pleading standard.
• Past performance sources and delivery risk: DLA’s use of SPRS and VPH delivery metrics, such as low composite scores, high delinquency rate, and average days late, reasonably supported a higher performance‑risk finding for WFL.
• Tradeoff under FAR Part 13: Even with a longer quoted delivery and higher price, the agency reasonably documented that the awardee’s better delivery record merited the premium, satisfying simplified acquisition requirements for a fair, well‑explained decision.

Protest denied in part and dismissed in part. Under FAR 13, concise documentation plus objective delivery performance data can justify a price premium; protests premised on contract‑administration theories or unsupported misrepresentation claims will not advance.

Digest

1. Protest challenging agency's failure to use protester's existing long-term contract to procure the required goods is dismissed where the issue would require interpreting protester's existing contract and determining whether agency's actions constituted a contract breach, which is a matter of contract administration that GAO will not review.
2. Protest challenging evaluation of awardee's quotation is dismissed for failure to state a valid basis of protest, and protest challenging agency's evaluation of protester's past performance is denied where agency's evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the terms of the solicitation.
3. Protest challenging agency's source selection decision is denied where agency reasonably determined awardee's higher-priced quotation was worth the price premium, and the agency's decision was sufficiently documented.