VirTra Inc (VTSI)

[sharpchicity]

Georgia Department of Corrections award award cancelled on 11/23...
due to a successful protest by VirTra


RFP:https://ssl.doas.state.ga.us/gpr/eventDetails?eSourceNumber=46700-GDC0000979&sourceSystemType=ps

Cancellation:

The solicitation/public notice identified above is being cancelled due to the need to redevelop requirements. No additional information is available at this time.

If the State Entity elects to conduct a new solicitation....

Portest by VirTra:

Three bidders submitted responses to the eRFQ: VirTra, FAAC Incorporated, and TI Training. On November 8, 2021, a NOIA was issued (Exhibit B) identifying TI Training as the apparent successful offeror. The evaluators did not assign cost scores, technical scores, and final scores to rank the offerors’ proposals, but the NOIA indicated that VirTra and FAAC were rejected because they were not the lowest bid. Presumably, the evaluation team determined (erroneously) that all three bidders were responsive, and ranked the proposals based solely on the total price of the bid. See generally GPM § 5.6.3.1 (noting that RFQ responses are ranked pass/fail based on whether the supplier meets the solicitation’s requirements, and then award made to the lowest priced responsible and responsive supplier). This process led to TI Training being ranked first, with a total contract price of $294,570, followed by FAAC ($330,350) and then VirTra ($491,341). As detailed below, however, only VirTra was responsive to the eRFQ, and the fact that its total extended contract price was higher than the other bidders is reflective only of the fact that VirTra has invested in patented intellectual property that is not just beneficial, but in fact critical, to providing GDC with the products and services it requires. VirTra’s competitors are only able to undercut VirTra’s pricing because they either do not have the specifications called for in the eRFQ or can only provide the products called for by infringing on VirTra’s intellectual property rights.

...

TI Training’s proposed solution does not—and legally, cannot—satisfy the detailed specifications demanded by the eRFQ.

TI Training submitted a proposal that is in various places vague and in others silent as to its ability to meet the specified criteria in the eRFQ. This was intentional on TI Training’s part. It knows that it cannot provide the solutions the GDC is seeking, and it apparently believed that if it failed to highlight the ways in which it was non-responsive, the GDC would not notice. Such evasion should not be rewarded with lucrative government contracts.