Brazos Roofing, Inc.

B-275113 Jan 23, 1997 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Protest that agency improperly rejected protester's bid as late is sustained where: (1) agency amended solicitation so close to the deadline for submitting bids that bid submission by facsimile was the only practicable alternative available to bidders. (4) the protester's bid package arrived at the installation and was in the hands of agency officials by the deadline for submitting bids. The IFB was issued on September 13. Called for bids to be submitted by September 17. [1] Two amendments were issued and bid opening was ultimately set for Monday. Was provided to prospective bidders on Friday. Brazos was unable to contact the individual after three or four attempts. The final call was routed by an operator to another individual in the contracting office. View Decision Matter of: Brazos Roofing, Inc. File: B-275113 Date: January 23, 1997 Protest that agency improperly rejected protester's bid as late is sustained where: (1) agency amended solicitation so close to the deadline for submitting bids that bid submission by facsimile was the only practicable alternative available to bidders; (2) facsimile machine designated in solicitation became inoperable for some indefinite period of time during the morning of the bid submission deadline; (3) protester transmitted its bid to an alternate facsimile machine based on advice from an agency employee other than the designated point of contact only after unsuccessfully attempting to telephone the designated contact; and (4) the protester's bid package arrived at the installation and was in the hands of agency officials by the deadline for submitting bids. Attorneys DECISION Brazos Roofing, Inc. protests the award of a contract to ACC Construction Company, Inc. under invitation for bids (IFB) No. DACA21-96-B-0137, issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for hurricane damage repairs at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Brazos contends that the Army improperly rejected its low bid as late. We sustain the protest. The IFB was issued on September 13, 1996 and, because of the urgent need for the repairs, called for bids to be submitted by September 17. [1] Two amendments were issued and bid opening was ultimately set for Monday, September 23 at 1:00 p.m. local time. The second amendment, which made numerous substantive changes to the work contemplated, was provided to prospective bidders on Friday, September 20, by overnight delivery; because of the late issuance of this amendment in relation to the deadline for submitting bids, the agency orally advised firms that bids could be submitted by facsimile (fax) and specified the contracting activity's official fax number for receiving bids. On the day of bid opening, Brazos made several unsuccessful attempts to transmit its bid to the agency's official fax machine, beginning at approximately 10:30 a.m. agency time. After these unsuccessful attempts, the Brazos employee responsible for transmitting the firm's bid attempted several times to telephone the individual designated in the solicitation as the agency's official point of contact to determine what steps to take to fax its bid. Brazos was unable to contact the individual after three or four attempts. The final call was routed by an operator to another individual in the contracting office. After the Brazos employee explained that she had been unsuccessfully attempting to transmit to the designated fax machine, the agency's employee (a secretary) provided an alternate fax number to the Brazos employee. After receiving this information, the Brazos employee began attempting to fax to both numbers. At approximately 11:30 a.m., three pages of Brazos's 35-page bid document were successfully transmitted to the official fax machine, after which the transmission was interrupted. Thereafter, at approximately 12:20 p.m., the Brazos employee transmitted the bid document to the alternate fax machine; this transmission lasted approximately 21 minutes, and was completed at approximately 12:41 p.m. At some point during this time period, the agency's official fax machine was inoperable because it had run out of ink; the record does not show how long the machine remained inoperable, but does show that it was not until shortly before the 1:00 p.m. deadline for submitting bids that agency personnel became aware of the problem and fixed it. Further, because a bid was being received at about 1:00 p.m., and because this was the only bid received on the official fax machine up to that time, the contracting officer decided to extend bid opening to 1:30 p.m. (apparently without advising bidders). Two more bids were received at the official fax machine by 1:30 p.m. [2] At approximately 1:30 p.m., an agency employee discovered the Brazos bid on the alternate fax machine, which he then delivered to the bid opening official sometime between 1:30 p.m. and 1:40 p.m.