美国戈夫rnment Accountability Office denied a protest by federal border wall contractor Fisher Sand & Gravel of a barrier contract awarded to competitor Southwest Valley Constructors despite its $33.5-million higher price. GAO said the price premium was warranted by "substantial qualitative differences” between the two firms' task-order proposals.

The fixed-price, design-build task order at issue was for a 13-mile section of border wall in Laredo, Texas. Fisher was notified of the selection on Sept. 28. Six companies submitted proposals to the US Army Corps of Engineers in response to an Aug. 28 request for proposals.

After Fisher's bid protest in early October, the Corps notified Southwest Valley to stop work on the contract. GAO decided the protest in early January, but did not release its public redacted version until Feb. 26.

A Corps spokeswoman told ENR on March 5 that Southwest received notice to proceed on Jan. 15, which was suspended on Jan. 23 after President Joe Biden issued an executive order three days earlier halting all border wall work.

All wall contracts remain halted and are under review by the Biden Administration through late March. According to media reports and local sources, no border wall construction in Laredo is visible.

The award to Southwest Valley, a unit of Kiewit Corp., was based on a best-value tradeoff between the proposers’ risk mitigation plan and their management plan which together were of equal importance to price, according to the Corps. Small business participation was the least important factor.

Evaluation Challenged

Fisher protested the Corps evaluation of its proposal, saying the agency failed to reasonably document its best-value tradeoff determination. The company claimed the Corps assigned a higher rating to the proposal Fisher submitted “on a nearly identical border wall solicitation” and that the Corps assignment of a rating for the Laredo wall contract was unreasonable.

费舍尔的价格提案最低，为1.75亿美元。根据GAO的决定，西南谷的竞标为2.085亿美元，但根据GAO的决定，其风险缓解计划和管理计划是最高的技术建议。

费舍尔的风险缓解计划和管理计划都被评为“可接受”，而西南谷提交的计划则被评为“好”。GAO决定解释说，良好的评分表明目标是“彻底的方法和理解”，而可接受的评分反映了“适当的方法和理解”目标。

The narrative provided by Southwest Valley for risk mitigation significantly exceeded those of other offerors, the Corps said. The contractor "also clearly considered and identified risks specific to this project," said the agency. "These identified risks and how [Southwest Valley] intends to mitigate them increase the government’s confidence that [the firm] will be able to overcome construction challenges and complexities in these areas,” the Corps said.

Fisher说，Fisher没有讨论或考虑两种重要风险，这些风险已从公开发布的GAO决定或该项目特定的任何其他风险中删除。该机构的来源选择咨询委员会表示，它担心可能对政府产生的影响。

军团说，西南山谷的管理计划也更为强大。该机构说，该公司“似乎已经花了一些时间考虑管理项目以确保成功绩效的方法。”相比之下，费舍尔的[管理计划]“不太清楚”。费舍尔满足了RFP的最低要求，但没有提供太多细节。

GAO解释

高中说，在其决定中，费舍尔的参与提案的小企业参与提案稍好一些，但没有提供公司的承诺，这不能确保承包商将超过RFP的目标。

The Corps responded to Fisher’s complaint that it had higher ratings on a similar wall barrier proposal and therefore should have had higher ratings on the Laredo proposal by saying that "as a general matter, the technical evaluation of an offeror's proposal is a matter within the agency's discretion, and a protester's disagreement with the agency's judgement does not establish that the evaluation is unreasonable."

GAO同意，费舍尔（Fisher）对Laredo采购中获得的非价格评级的投诉未能说明有效的抗议基础。

Fisher also claimed the best-value tradeoff determination was unreasonable, saying the Corps failed to give sufficient consideration to price and that there were only minor technical differences between the two proposals.

The Corps said it specifically considered the magnitude of Southwest Valley's price differential but concluded that multiple beneficial aspects of the firm’s technical proposal warranted the premium.

Southwest Valley's proposal had a detailed discussion of the specific risks associated with the Laredo procurement, while Fisher’s proposal primarily addressed risks that are common to all border wall contracts, GAO said.

高also said it found no basis to question the Corps determination of the evaluated strengths in Southwest Valley’s proposal or the price premium.

Fisher did not return a request for comment on the GAO decison.