Protest of: TISTA Science and Technology Corporation
B-422891.2; .3; .4

• TISTA challenged the issuance of a task order by the National Institutes of Health to Tantus Technologies, alleging the agency engaged in unequal treatment of the offerors.
• The Agency assessed a strength to the awardee for proposing to maintain a “warm bench” of candidates to meet potential surge staffing needs. On the other hand, it assessed a weakness to TISTA for proposing to maintain bench strength with a pool of pre-vetted candidates.
• The Agency argued there was a distinction in the proposals in that the awardee’s “warm bench” was made up exclusively of existing employees, while TISTA’s would need to hire surge candidates.
• The Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) rejected the Agency’s argument, finding that both quotations provided for surge staffing with a mix of existing and yet-to-be-hired employees, and sustained the protester’s allegation of disparate treatment.
• GAO similarly found unequal treatment in the Agency’s decision to assign a strength to the awardee for its use of a “master schedule,” when it did not assign a strength to the protester for proposing use of a “master tracker.”