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![handle is hein.gao/gaocrptajhc0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
oComptroller General
of the United States
Washington, D.C. 20548
Decision
Matter of: The Production Company
File: B-281503
Date: February 18, 1999
Nancy H. Stark for the protester.
Lyman Goon, Esq., Social Security Administration, for the agency.
Win. David Hasfurther, Esq., and Michael R. Golden, Esq., Office of the General
Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
DIGEST
Agency's issuance of an order to vendor that submitted lower-rated, lower-priced
quotation in a best value procurement (where request for quotations stated that
price was secondary to the three technical factors combined) is unobjectionable
where the contracting officer performed a rational assessment of the competing
quotations and reasonably determined that the price premium associated with the
protester's higher-rated, higher-priced quotation was not justified given the
acceptable level of technical capability available at the lower price.
DECISION
The Production Company protests the issuance of an order to The A'Hern Group
under Social Security Administration request for quotations (RFQ) No. SSA-RFQ-
98-3542, a commercial item acquisition. The protester argues that it should have
received the order because its quotation was rated the highest technically.
We deny the protest.
The RFQ requested quotations for the production of a videotape explaining the
Social Security Administration's policy on adjudicating disability claims involving
neurological laboratory tests. The RFQ basically advised that the order would be
issued to the vendor which represented the best overall value to the Government.
The RFQ further stated that [m]eeting the requirements of the statement of work
and experience and past performance, when combined [were] the most important
factors for award. Price is secondary. RFQ Addendum 1, at 29. Vendors were also
required to submit with their quotation a videotape containing three 10-minute
segments from three different video programs produced by the offeror in the past
5 years. The videotape was to be evaluated for creativity and technical quality. Id.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.gao/gaocrptajhc0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)