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B-401531,B-401531.2,B-401531.3 1 (2009-10-05)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadbbl0001 and id is 1 raw text is: G A 0Comptroller General Accountability * Integrity * Reliability of the United States United States Government Accountability 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: ACS Education Solutions, LLC File: B-401531; B-401531.2; B-401531.3 Date: October 5, 2009 James J. McCullough, Esq., and Steven A. Alerding, Esq., Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, for the protester. William L. Walsh, Esq., J. Scott Hommer, Esq., Patrick R. Quigley, Esq., and Jeffery M. Chiow, Esq., Venable, for SLM Corporation; John R. Tolle, Esq., and Bryan R. King, Esq., Barton, Baker, Thomas & Tolle, for Nelnet, Inc.; and Thomas A. Coulter, Esq., Nicole Hardin Brakstad, Esq., and Lawrence B. Cann, III, Esq., LeClairRyan, for Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, the intervenors. Jeffrey C. Morhardt, Esq., and Antonier White, Esq., Department of Education. David A. Ashen, Esq., and John M. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of this proposal. DIGEST Protest of award of four indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, performance-based contracts for servicing direct federal student loans is denied where agency reasonably determined that while incumbent protester's offer would mitigate risk during transition and benefit government in the short term, these advantages were not worth the increased overall cost to the government resulting from the refusal of the protester (unlike the awardees) to accept the agency's proposed common pricing terms, and protester's proposal to continue servicing loans transferred from its contract would frustrate contemplated performance-based approach under the acquisition and introduce uncertainty in contract administration. DECISION ACS Education Solutions, LLC, of Germantown, Maryland, protests the Department of Education, Office of Financial Student Aid's (FSA) award of contracts to Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Nelnet, Inc., Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA), and SLM Corporation (Sallie Mae), under Phase II of request for proposals (RFP) No. FSA-TitlelV-09, for student loan management and servicing. ACS challenges the evaluation of proposals and resulting source selection. We deny the protest.