Third Time’s Not a Charm; Disparate Compensation Evaluation Leaves Navy Stranded

On November 20, 2017, the Government Accountability Office released its decision in Fluor Federal Solutions, LLC, B-410486.9, sustaining a protest challenging the Navy’s third award decision for an 8-year contract to provide base operations support services on the island of Guam. Following a sustained protest challenging the Navy’s discussions and proposal evaluations (CFS-KBR Marianas Support Services, LLC; Flour Federal Solutions LLC, B-410486, et al., Jan. 2, 2015 (Round 1)), and an outcome prediction ADR in which GAO advised that it would sustain the protester’s second protest challenging the Navy’s evaluation of the awardee’s exempt employee compensation plan (Round 2), the Navy again selected the same awardee. In this protest (Round 3), GAO found that the Navy engaged in disparate treatment when it downgraded the protester for proposing reduced compensation of exempt employees while overlooking similar risk in the awardee’s proposed plan, which involved replacing exempt employees with new hires at reduced compensation through multiple hiring cycles.