Temp Air Company, Inc., B-279837, July 2, 1998

B-279837 Jul 02, 1998 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Protester's bid was properly rejected as nonresponsive where the rejected bid substituted photocopies of bid schedule pages from the base performance period for pages covering the option periods. Creating ambiguity about whether the bidder was committed to providing the option year effort. Contracting officer's decision not to permit bid correction is reasonable where the bid is nonresponsive on its face. Temp Air argues that the Coast Guard's rejection of its bid was based upon an erroneous conclusion that certain substitute pages used in Temp Air's bid schedule altered material terms of the invitation. This procurement was also reserved for exclusive small business participation. Temp Air was the apparent low bidder based on a conclusion that its bid price was $6. View Decision Matter of: Temp Air Company, Inc. File: B-279837 Date: July 2, 1998 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION Temp Air Company, Inc. protests the rejection of its low bid as nonresponsive under invitation for bids (IFB) No. DTCG40-98-B-40002, issued by the Department of Transportation, United States Coast Guard, for operations, maintenance and repair at the United States Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland. Temp Air argues that the Coast Guard's rejection of its bid was based upon an erroneous conclusion that certain substitute pages used in Temp Air's bid schedule altered material terms of the invitation. We deny the protest. The IFB, issued October 17, 1997, contained a bid schedule calling for bids for a 10-month base period followed by four 1-year options, and provided that bids would be evaluated for award by adding the price for all the options to the price for the base period. IFB Sec. M.4, M.6. The IFB anticipated award of a fixed-priced contract. In addition, the IFB indicated that award would be made on an "all or none" basis, and that failure to submit a bid for any item would result in the entire bid being rejected as nonresponsive. IFB Sec. M.5. This procurement was also reserved for exclusive small business participation. As originally issued, pages 2 through 31 of the IFB contained the bid schedule, comprised of numerous contract line item numbers (CLIN) and sub-CLINs. However, the original version of the IFB bid schedule did not contain a page 23. By amendment No. 0003, issued on December 4, the agency provided the omitted page 23, and issued replacement pages for the schedule pages numbered 4, 10, 16, 22, and 28. The five replacement pages added a new requirement for the contractor to collect recycled paper during the 10-month base period (CLIN 0001AA2), and reflected this added work at the same point in the schedule for each of the 4 option years. /1/ The new page 23 added CLIN 0004B1, for Level III work orders for option year 3. The IFB already contained a similar requirement in the 10-month base period, and in option years 1, 2, and 4. At the December 30, 1997 bid opening, Temp Air was the apparent low bidder based on a conclusion that its bid price was $6,136,553; the next low bid was submitted by WW Contractors, Inc., with a price of $6,606,493.19. After bid opening, several events delayed the procurement: (1) there were two agency-level protests from the third low bidder challenging award to either Temp Air or WW Contractors; (2) the contracting specialist noticed several mathematical errors in Temp Air's bid which the company was allowed to correct; and (3) the agency reached an initial conclusion that Temp Air was not responsible--followed by a request for review by the Small Business Administration, which was ultimately withdrawn. The contracting officer explains that because of these intervening activities, it was not until March 2 that he noticed certain problems with the bid that caused him to question its responsiveness. On March 24, the contracting officer determined, in writing, that the bid was nonresponsive and could not be accepted. On April 7, award was made to WW Contractors, Inc., and this protest followed. Temp Air's bid was viewed as nonresponsive because of the company's handling of the bid schedule replacement pages included in amendment No. 0003. The record shows that while Temp Air acknowledged receipt of amendment No. 0003 on the front of its bid, and used some of the replacement pages provided in the amendment, in two instances--pages 10 and 23--it used neither the pages provided by amendment No. 0003, nor the original schedule pages. With respect to replacement page 10, which contained CLINs 0002AA1, 0002AA2, and 0002AA3 (all of which represent effort within the first option year), Temp Air instead submitted a completed photocopy of replacement page 4, which contained CLINS 0001AA1, 0001AA2, and 0001AA3 (representing the same effort within the 10-month base performance period).