Saturn Industries--Reconsideration

B-261954.4 Jul 19, 1996 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights A firm requested reconsideration of its denied protest of a Defense Construction Supply Center (DCSC) solicitation for hydraulic motor race assemblies. GAO had held that the protester: (1) had an adequate opportunity to qualify its product, since it knew of the qualification requirements at least 2 years prior to the procurement; and (2) never submitted any items for testing or made any deliveries under its previous contract. In its request for reconsideration, the protester reiterated arguments raised during its original protest and contended that GAO failed to address its assertions that: (1) the two named manufacturers were not properly qualified sources; (2) DCSC failed to revalidate its qualification requirements; and (3) one manufacturer had an organizational conflict of interest. GAO held that the protester: (1) failed to provide any evidence that warranted reversal of the original decision; (2) should have raised the revalidation issue during its original protest; and (3) merely anticipated improper DCSC action regarding the manufacturer's alleged conflict of interest. Accordingly, the request for reconsideration was denied. View Decision Matter of: Saturn Industries--Reconsideration File: B-261954.4 Date: July 19, 1996 Request for reconsideration is denied where requesting party reiterates arguments raised during the initial protest, raises arguments that could have been but were not raised during the initial protest, and fails to demonstrate that the decision contains errors of fact or law. Attorneys DECISION Saturn Industries requests reconsideration of our decision, Saturn Indus., B-261954.3, Jan. 5, 1996, 96-1 CPD para. 9, in which we denied Saturn's protest challenging the provisions of solicitation No. SPO750-95-R-0213, issued by the Defense Construction Supply Center (DCSC), Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). The solicitation sought proposals to provide 515 hydraulic motor race assemblies, national stock number (NSN) 2530-01-109-4375, to be used in the transmission of the M2 and M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Saturn asserts that our decision failed to adequately address various protest issues. We deny the reconsideration request. The challenged solicitation was issued on May 22, 1995, and provided that one of the assembly components (the race) was source controlled. [1] In that regard, the solicitation established qualification requirements with which an offeror must comply to become a qualified source, stating: "Qualification testing of [the race component will require a 100 hour dynamometer test ($75,000) [and] 6000 mile on-vehicle test ($25,000) and $25,000 for analysis and final report before source approval can be given . . . . Contractor would need to supply eight [race components] . . . along with the above funds, to the government for testing. Testing would take six to nine months." In its protest, Saturn challenged the solicitation's qualification requirements on the basis that it had not been given a reasonable opportunity to qualify its product. Specifically, Saturn asserted: "As written, the solicitation requires delivery of the race assemblies within 150 days of contract award. The Item Description indicates that qualification testing requires six to nine months. Therefore it is not possible for any potential offeror to compete in this procurement if its offered product is not qualified, or at least one to four months into testing, at the time of award. ". . . DCSC has therefore, in effect, unreasonably limited the competition by specifying lengthy testing requirements which cannot be met by unqualified offerors. This violates the requirement in 10 U.S.C. Sec. 2319 that nonapproved sources be given a reasonable opportunity to qualify." As we pointed out in our decision, the record belied Saturn's representations that it had not been afforded an adequate opportunity to qualify its component. Specifically, the record established that, in December 1992, Saturn was awarded a contract to supply the race assemblies being procured under the challenged solicitation. [2] There, as here, the solicitation provided that the race component was source controlled and identified Martin Marietta and Kaydon as the qualified sources. By letter to the agency dated December 22, 1992, Saturn requested waiver of the source control requirements. [3] In February 1993, Saturn submitted a request to become a qualified source. Saturn was subsequently advised of the specific requirements it must meet to qualify as a source for the race component; those requirements were identical to the qualification requirements in the solicitation here.