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G A 0 Comptroller General
SIntegrity Reliability of the United States
~ccountabthty Inert Rea iy
United States General Accounting Office DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
Washington, DC 20548 The decision issued on the date below was subject to a
GAO Protective Order. This redacted version has been
approved for public release.
Decision
Matter of: Paraclete Armor & Equipment, Inc.
File: B-293509
Date: February 24, 2004
Ruth E. Ganister, Esq., Rosenthal and Ganister, for the protester.
Maj. Robert B. Neill, and Christopher E. Kernan, Esq., Department of the Army, for
the agency.
John L. Formica, Esq., and James A. Spangenberg, Esq., Office of the General
Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
DIGEST
Agency reasonably determined that the protester's proposal contained elements of
risk that justified the award of a contract to an offeror that had submitted a slightly
higher-priced proposal.
DECISION
Paraclete Armor & Equipment, Inc. protests the award of a contract to Eagle
Industries under request for proposals (RFP) No. USZA22-03-R-0027, issued by the
Department of the Army, for quick release body armor vest systems. Paraclete
protests that the evaluation of its proposal was unreasonable, and evidenced bias
against Paraclete and unequal treatment of the offerors.
We deny the protest.
The RFP provided for the award of a fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-
quantity contract, to the offeror submitting the proposal representing the best value
to the government based upon the evaluation factors of technical, past performance,
and price. The RFP advised that the technical factor (which consisted of
20 evaluated criteria) was more important than the past performance factor, and that
the technical and past performance factors combined were more important than
price.
The RFP set forth detailed technical requirements for the vest systems, providing, for
example, that the vest systems were to have a dual quick release system that allows
the operator easy access to the quick release handle, and were to be capable of
being worn by [special operations force] operators under the parachute harness](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.gao/gaocrptapld0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)