Forest Service Agrees Decision To Select Local County As Campground Concessioner Was Not Based On Criteria Set Out In The Prospectus

A private entity recently appealed a decision by the Forest Service to select a local county for award of a campground concession operation based on the agency having given the county an unfair advantage in the evaluation of proposals.  The private entity, which was the incumbent concessioner, argued that the Forest Service had improperly given the county a higher score based on its conclusion that the profits received by the county “would be available for local expenditures providing commensurate local economic benefit (i.e., profits would be invested locally).”  The entity asserted that this basis for evaluating the proposals was not consistent with the evaluation criteria in the prospectus.  The incumbent also argued that the agency’s decision to give “more importance” to this alleged benefit than it gave to the incumbent’s higher fee proposal was also invalid.  The Forest Service granted the appeal, finding that “the justification for selecting [the local county] was not consistent with the criteria listed in the prospectus.”  The Forest Service remanded the matter to the forest which conducted the evaluation and also instructed the forest use an entirely new team of reviewers.