TITLE:  Westar Corporation, B-290788, September 25, 2002
BNUMBER:  B-290788
DATE:  September 25, 2002
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Westar Corporation, B-290788, September 25, 2002

   Decision
    
    
Matter of:   Westar Corporation
    
File:            B-290788
    
Date:              September 25, 2002
    
Terrence J. Strach for the protester.
George U. Lane, Esq., General Services Administration, for the agency.
Scott H. Riback, Esq., and John M. Melody, Esq., Office of the General
Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
DIGEST
    
Protest that awardee failed to meet solicitation's requirements relating
to certification of proposed personnel to perform certain nondestructive
testing is denied, where record shows that agency obtained information
adequate to demonstrate that personnel in question had necessary
certifications at time of award, and protester has submitted no evidence
to show that agency's conclusion regarding adequacy of certifications was
unreasonable.
DECISION
    
Westar Corporation protests the award of a federal supply schedule
delivery order to MEVATEC Corporation under solicitation No. 4TWG21024178,
issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) for nondestructive
testing services.  Westar maintains that MEVATEC does not have personnel
that meet the solicitation's certification requirements. 
    
We deny the protest.
    
The solicitation required, among other things, that the contractor have
three personnel certified at level III for nondestructive testing, in
accordance with the requirements of the American Society for
Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), for several different testing disciplines. 
Both the protester and the awardee submitted timely initial and best and
final responses to the solicitation.  The protester's initial and final
submissions both provided:  *Currently, we do not meet all the
certification requirements of this Statement of Work (SOW) paragraph;
however, we will take corrective actions over the next few months to
remedy this condition.*  Agency Report (AR), exhs. 3.2, at 4, 4.2 at 4. 
In contrast, the awardee's submissions provided unequivocally that the
firm proposed personnel meeting the certification requirement.  AR, exhs.
3.1, at 11-12, 4.1 at 12-13.  Based on the contents of the firms'
submissions, the agency made award to MEVATEC, finding that, although the
firm's price was higher than Westar's, the cost premium was justified
because MEVATEC met the solicitation's certification requirements, whereas
Westar did not (and additionally, its failure to meet the requirement as
the incumbent contractor had resulted in previous performance
difficulties).  AR, exh. 5.
    
After being advised of the agency's award decision, Westar filed an
agency-level protest, maintaining that MEVATEC did not have personnel who
satisfied the certification requirement at the time of award.  In response
to the protest, the agency sought information from MEVATEC regarding the
certifications of the individuals that it proposed to perform the
requirement.  In response, MEVATEC provided documentation from its
subcontractor, Huddleston Technical Services (HTS), showing that the HTS
employees who would perform the work in fact possessed the required
certifications.  Based on this information, the agency denied Westar's
agency-level protest, finding that MEVATEC, through the employees of its
subcontractor, met the certification requirement.  After being advised
that the agency had denied its protest, Westar filed this protest in our
Office.
    
Westar maintains that the documentation furnished by MEVATEC does not
establish that all three of its proposed HTS subcontractor employees meet
the certification requirement.  The protester concludes that the agency
improperly used the certifications as a basis to distinguish between the
two firms, and that it should have been awarded the task order based on
its lower price.
    
The protest is without merit.  The record shows that, in response to the
agency inquiry, MEVATEC provided the ASNT certificate for HTS's senior
engineer/scientist, showing that this individual was certified by the ASNT
in July 2000 and March 2002 for all applicable disciplines or testing
methods, and that his certifications expire no sooner than July 2005 (with
two expiring in March 2007).  AR, exh. 13, at 3.  That individual executed
*corporate level* certifications for HTS's remaining two employees,[1] AR,
exh. 10, at 4-5, and MEVATEC furnished additional documentation to show
that the individuals with the corporate level certifications had in fact
performed the required testing and had received their corporate level
certifications prior to the date of contract award.  AR, exh. 13, at
4-10.  GSA forwarded this information to the user activity, the Aviation
Ground Support Equipment office, to
    
    
obtain that organization's views regarding the adequacy of the 
certifications.  After reviewing the information, the cognizant official
at the user agency concluded:
    
[i]t is the opinion of the Aviation Ground Support Equipment office that
the HTS employees meet the certification requirements of [National
Aerospace Standard 410--the applicable certification standard] and that
MEVATEC Corporation has met the requirements of our Statement of Work.
AR, exh. 13, at 2.
    
MEVATEC's certification materials were included with the agency report in
response to the protest, and were reviewed by Westar.  In its comments,
Westar does not challenge the adequacy of the information, other than to
assert, without support, that GSA misunderstands the applicable
certification standard requirements.  Under these circumstances, we have
no basis to question the reasonableness of the agency's conclusion that
MEVATEC's proposed personnel meet the certification requirements.
    
The protest is denied.
    
Anthony H. Gamboa
General Counsel
    
    

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   [1] Under the terms of the solicitation, one of the three proposed
personnel had to be certified by ASNT.  The other two individuals could be
either ASNT certified, or possess *corporate level* certification, meaning
the individuals have been certified by their employer rather than by
ASNT.  Statement of Work, S: 2.1.