L. Washington & Associates, Inc., B-276556; B-276556.2; B-

L. Washington & Associates, Inc., B-276556; B-276556.2; B- BNUMBER: B-276556; B-276556.2; B-276556.3 DATE: June 26, 1997 TITLE: L. Washington & Associates, Inc., B-276556; B-276556.2; B- 276556.3, June 26, 1997 ********************************************************************** Matter of:L. Washington & Associates, Inc. File: B-276556; B-276556.2; B-276556.3 Date:June 26, 1997 Lawrence J. Sklute, Esq., for the protester. George R. Barbosa, The Barbosa Group, Inc., an intervenor. Scarlett Grose, Esq., General Services Administration, for the agency. Linda C. Glass, Esq., and Paul I. Lieberman, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1. Protest that agency unreasonably delayed award in order to allow awardee opportunity to apply for and obtain required license is dismissed where unsupported by the record. 2. Protest that awardee's bid should have been rejected as mistaken where contracting agency accepted awardee's bid verification is not for consideration because only the contracting parties are in a position to assert rights and bring forth all the necessary evidence to resolve mistake in bid questions. DECISION L. Washington & Associates, Inc. (LWA) protests the award of a contract to The Barbosa Group (Barbosa) under invitation for bids (IFB) No. GS-02P-96-CID-0012, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) for armed and unarmed guard services at various locations in six New Jersey State counties. The procurement was conducted competitively pursuant to section 8(a) of the Small Business Act, 15 U.S.C. sec. 637(a) (1994). LWA argues that Barbosa's bid should have been rejected as nonresponsive because Barbosa did not possess a required New Jersey State guard license at time of bid opening, that GSA "indefinitely delayed" the award in order to permit Barbosa to obtain the required license, and that GSA was aware of a mistake in Barbosa's bid but failed to take appropriate action. We dismiss the protests. The IFB, issued on July 22, 1996, contemplated the award of a fixed-priced, indefinite quantity contract for a 12-month base period with four 12-month option periods. The IFB required bidders to submit per-hour prices for both armed and unarmed guard services, with these prices to be multiplied by stated quantities and the results used to establish total aggregate price. Award was to be made to the responsible bidder submitting the lowest total price. The solicitation provided that the "successful bidder must obtain all New Jersey State Permits and Licenses prior to award of the contract." The agency received 16 bids by the August 27, 1996, bid opening date, ranging from $6,028,067.30 to $9,500,739.68. The lowest bid was submitted by Sheen & Shine, Inc. (S&S); Barbosa's bid of $6,544,474.03 was next low; and LWA's was fourth low. The low bidder, S&S, was requested to verify its bid on three separate occasions and on December 24, S&S was allowed to withdraw its bid because of numerous errors it made in its estimate. By letter dated October 16, the agency advised Barbosa, the second low bidder, that a mistake in bid was suspected and requested that it verify its bid. Barbosa agreed to a bid extension and by letter dated October 21, verified its bid. By letter dated November 21, GSA informed the SBA office in Houston, Texas, that it was evaluating the bid submitted by Barbosa for possible award and requested the SBA to verify Barbosa's eligibility under the 8(a) program and to provide a detailed statement regarding the firm's past experience in performing the type of services required by the solicitation. Even though Barbosa had verified its bid, by letter dated November 22, GSA again requested Barbosa to verify the accuracy of the bid and to provide specified bid documentation. By letter dated November 22, Barbosa provided the requested documentation and again verified its bid prices. In early December, Barbosa informed GSA that the paperwork for the required New Jersey license had been completed and was being processed. Barbosa was reminded by GSA on December 11 about the necessity of obtaining the license prior to award and was further advised that when GSA was ready to make award, the award could not be held up to allow Barbosa time in which to obtain the required license. After reviewing the documentation submitted by Barbosa with its second bid verification, GSA again requested Barbosa to verify its bid prices, which Barbosa did by letter dated January 9, 1997, providing specific responses to each of the areas of concern as identified in GSA's bid verification request.