In a recent decision, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied a protest challenging the award of a $115.8 million Central Intelligence Agency contract for medical support to Patriot Group International, Inc. (PGI). The incumbent contractor and protester, Assessment and Training Solutions Consulting Corporation (ATSCC), challenged, in part, the agency’s evaluation of its proposal under the solicitation’s technical and management factors. Under the technical factor, ATSCC asserted that the agency unreasonably failed to assess significant strengths for ATSCC’s proposed use of incumbent personnel, and should have assigned additional strengths based on ATSCC’s incumbent experience. Similarly, under the management factor, ATSCC asserted that the agency erroneously assessed a minor weakness related to its program management plan since ATSCC had demonstrated an effective management approach while performing under the incumbent contract. GAO rejected each of these arguments, finding that (1) there is no entitlement to “extra credit” for incumbent status and (2) the agency was not required to evaluate ATSCC’s proposal more favorably based on its incumbent personnel or performance. 

POV: Overconfidence that causes an incumbent offeror to focus on its existing, often long-standing relationship with the government customer instead of writing a compliant or compelling proposal is a common symptom of “incumbentitis” and can lead to defeat when a government contract is recompeted. Offerors shouldn’t expect to receive special consideration and higher proposal ratings based solely on their incumbent status because a competitor with a higher-rated proposal could swoop in and win the award. And a post-award protest asserting that more favorable ratings were warranted based on incumbency is unlikely to succeed.