Pacific Consolidated Industries

B-260650.2 Oct 25, 1995 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Protest is sustained where solicitation for liquid oxygen/nitrogen generators required offerors to demonstrate that their proposed generators were protected against nuclear. REDACTED DECISION A protected decision was issued on the date below and was subject to a GAO Protective Order. PCI contends that Cosmodyne's proposal should have been rejected as technically unacceptable because it failed to demonstrate compliance with two solicitation requirements: (1) that the generators be capable of operating. Have been previously deployed. Offerors were advised that to be determined technically acceptable. Among the performance requirements specified was the following: "Nuclear. Radiological fallout. [1]" Offerors were also advised that to be determined technically acceptable. View Decision Matter of: Pacific Consolidated Industries File: B-260650.2 Date: October 25, 1995 Protest is sustained where solicitation for liquid oxygen/nitrogen generators required offerors to demonstrate that their proposed generators were protected against nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare agent contamination, and record does not support the agency's determination that the proposed awardee's proposal complied with the requirement. Attorneys REDACTED DECISION A protected decision was issued on the date below and was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This version has been redacted or approved by the parties involved for public release. DECISION Pacific Consolidated Industries (PCI) protests the Department of the Navy's selection of Cosmodyne, Inc. for award under request for proposals (RFP) No. N68335-95-R-0003, a small business set-aside for liquid oxygen/nitrogen generators. PCI contends that Cosmodyne's proposal should have been rejected as technically unacceptable because it failed to demonstrate compliance with two solicitation requirements: (1) that the generators be capable of operating, without decontamination, in an environment contaminated with biological or chemical warfare agents or radiological fallout; and (2) that the generators, without the minor modifications necessary to meet the requirements of this solicitation, have been previously deployed. We sustain the protest. The RFP, as amended, sought offers on a base quantity of 6, and an optional quantity of 14, non-developmental, 2-ton capacity liquid oxygen/nitrogen generators. The solicitation provided for award to the offeror submitting the lowest-priced, technically acceptable offer. Offerors were advised that to be determined technically acceptable, their proposals must clearly demonstrate compliance with the design and performance, reliability and maintainability, and quality assurance requirements specified in the RFP. Among the performance requirements specified was the following: "Nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC). The generator shall be capable [of producing] oxygen or nitrogen to the requirements of paragraph 3.3 [which sets forth required minimum production rates and purity/quality standards] while operating in a[n] environment contaminated with the following NBC agents: E.K., Mustard, Lewisite, GB, GD, and radiological fallout. [1]" Offerors were also advised that to be determined technically acceptable, their proposals must demonstrate that the generators, without the minor modifications necessary to meet the requirements of this solicitation, had been previously deployed, either commercially or militarily. Three proposals were received by the March 6, 1995, closing date. The agency included two of the three, PCI's and Cosmodyne's, in the competitive range and, after discussions were conducted, both offerors submitted best and final offers (BAFO) prior to the designated closing date of May 30. On June 1, the contracting officer notified PCI that Cosmodyne was the apparent successful offeror and had certified itself as a small business. [2] On June 7, PCI protested Cosmodyne's small business status to the agency, and on June 19, it filed the instant protest with our Office. By letter dated July 6, the Small Business Administration determined that Cosmodyne is a small business. In its proposal, Cosmodyne proposed to furnish [deleted]. [3] The proposal stated that the plant proposed complied, without exception, with the solicitation, and that [deleted]. The proposal further represented that the following filtration systems would keep the products from being contaminated while in the plant: "[Deleted]" Although there was no indication in Cosmodyne's proposal that any of the foregoing systems were not standard [deleted]. PCI contends that Cosmodyne's proposal fails to demonstrate compliance with the solicitation's NBC requirements, and that the evaluators could therefore not have reasonably determined it to be technically acceptable.