Morganti National, Inc.

Morganti National, Inc. BNUMBER: B-274627; B-274627.2 DATE: December 20, 1996 TITLE: Morganti National, Inc. ********************************************************************** Matter of:Morganti National, Inc. File: B-274627; B-274627.2 Date:December 20, 1996 J. Randolph MacPherson, Esq., Sullivan & Worcester LLP, for the protester. Robert S. Brams, Esq., Patton Boggs, L.L.P., for Sayed Hamid Behbehani and Sons, Co. W.L.L., an intervenor. Paul W. Manning, Esq., United States Information Agency, for the agency. Linda S. Lebowitz, Esq., and Michael R. Golden, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST An agency may reasonably accept an offeror's certification and worksheets as demonstrating compliance with the solicitation's mandatory domestic content requirements in the absence of information suggesting that the offeror otherwise does not intend to comply with those requirements. DECISION Morganti National, Inc. protests the award of a contract to Sayed Hamid Behbehani and Sons, Co. W.L.L. (SHB) under request for proposals (RFP) No. IA2101-S5234574-EP, issued by the United States Information Agency for the design, fabrication, and construction of a Voice of America (VOA) shortwave relay broadcasting station on the Island of Tinian, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Morganti basically contends that SHB was ineligible for award because it failed to demonstrate compliance with the RFP's mandatory domestic content requirements. We deny the protests. The RFP contemplated the award of a fixed-price contract to the offeror whose proposal was most advantageous to the government, price being considered more important than the technical evaluation factors. The Tinian station, which will broadcast VOA radio programs to mainland China, was the last VOA relay station modernization project. Like the other projects, this procurement was subject to domestic content requirements, as described in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989, Pub. L. 100-204, sec. 403(b), 101 Stat. 1381 (1987), which provides as follows: "A bid shall not be treated as a responsive bid for purposes of the facilities modernization program of the Voice of America unless the bidder can establish that the United States goods and services content, excluding consulting and management fees, of his proposal and the resulting contract will not be less than 55 percent of the value of his proposal and the resulting total contract." To implement the statutory provision, the RFP included clause L.8, captioned "United States Goods and Services Content Requirements (Pub. L. No. 100-204)," and clause L.18, captioned "Computing United States Goods and Services Content as a Percentage of the Value of the Contract and Percentage of Value of the Proposal." Clause L.8 required offerors to submit completed domestic content percentage worksheets prepared in accordance with the format and instructions provided in clause L.18 for all goods and services included in the RFP's pricing schedule. The worksheets were included as attachments to the RFP. Basically, on the worksheets, offerors were required to provide their total price for domestic and foreign goods and services, and to state a total price percentage of domestic to foreign goods and services content. A footnote at the end of clause L.18 explained that an offeror's satisfaction of the domestic content requirements constituted a "threshold mandatory evaluation factor," that is, if an offeror's proposal did not meet the 55-percent value of the proposal and 55-percent value of the contract requirements, the offeror would be considered unqualified and its proposal would be considered ineligible for award. As relevant to these protests, included as another attachment to the RFP was a list of government-furnished equipment (GFE). Specifically, the government was furnishing four generators, with auxiliary equipment and materials, for installation and integration by the contractor. The RFP advised, however, that because the generators were GFE, offerors should not include the value of these items in their price proposals. Neither the RFP's pricing schedule nor the domestic content worksheets included a line item for GFE. Prior to the submission of initial proposals, clause K.19 was added to the RFP by amendment No. 1. This clause provided as follows: "By submission of this offer, the offeror hereby certifies that its offer is responsive under requirements of Section 403(b) of P.L. 100-204.