Delta International, Inc., B-284364.2, May 11, 2000

B-284364.2 May 11, 2000 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights The vendor whose items are excluded from consideration may protest the exclusion. GAO will determine whether the agency had a reasonable basis for determining that the excluded items did not meet its needs. 2. Protest challenging agency's conclusion that only a fully digital system would meet the agency's needs is sustained where record fails to show that agency had a reasonable basis for its conclusion that protester's system. The purchase order was placed under SAIC's Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contract. That its Bomb Data Center (BDC) was assigned to identify and procure appropriate equipment. The BDC determined that RTR-4 units should be purchased because the RTR-4 is the only "fully digital" portable X-ray system available. View Decision Matter of: Delta International, Inc. File: B-284364.2 Date: May 11, 2000 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION Delta International, Inc. protests the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) issuance of purchase order No. A9G906190 to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) for portable X-ray inspection systems. The purchase order was placed under SAIC's Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contract. Delta, which also has an FSS contract for portable X-ray inspection systems, argues that the FBI improperly determined that its equipment would not meet the agency's needs. We sustain the protest. The FBI explains that as part of a counter-terrorism initiative, Congress appropriated funding for the acquisition of equipment for local and state bomb technicians, and that its Bomb Data Center (BDC) was assigned to identify and procure appropriate equipment. The BDC identified SAIC's RTR-4 Real Time Imaging Systems as among the items to be purchased for dispersal to state and local bomb squads. Contracting Officer's Statement at 1; FBI Procurement Justification, June 12, 1999, at 1. The BDC determined that RTR-4 units should be purchased because the RTR-4 is the only "fully digital" portable X-ray system available. Id. at 2. On September 21, 1999, the FBI issued a purchase order worth approximately $9.8 million to SAIC for 424 RTR-4 systems and associated equipment. According to the agency, a fully digital system is required because: [f]ull digitization would allow greater compatible technological improvements, faster exchange of data information, and significant quality control of resolutions. The use of a fully digital system would reduce frequency roll-off associated with the use of an analog filter. It would further eliminate image losses associated with the use of coax cables in the analog system. Further noise distortion is avoided in a fully digital system by the elimination of the Sync Grabber that is characteristic of the analog format. . . . In addition, a fully digital system could be upgraded to a wireless system at a later time, without loss of speed in image transmission. /1/ Declaration of the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR), Mar. 1, 2000, at 2-3. In addition, a fully digital system "will allow the Bomb Technician on the scene of an incident to digitally transmit images to other locations anywhere in the country for real-time assistance from other experts." Declaration of COTR, Mar. 22, 2000, at 2. By way of background, the FBI explains that the RTR-4 and Delta's system, the foXray II, consist of three components, which are linked by cable: an X-ray source, which generates X-rays that are directed at a suspect device; an imager housing a camera, where the image is acquired; and a control unit, which the bomb technician uses to send commands to control the other components and which receives data from the imager and allows them to be viewed on a screen. Declaration of COTR, Apr. 12, 2000, at 2; see also Protester's Comments, Apr. 13, 2000, at 9. The two systems differ in the manner in which they transmit data from the imager to the controller, however. According to the COTR: With the RTR-4, the camera housed in the imager is fully digital in that the image is digitized on the chip within the camera itself, prior to any transmission of data to the control unit. Transmission of data to the control unit is in digital format. With the conventional technology of the RTR-3 [the predecessor unit to the RTR-4], foXray [the predecessor to the foXray II] and foXray II, the camera housed in the imager is analog. Only analog video data is established within the camera, prior to transmission to the control unit. Transmission of data to the control unit is in analog video format. Declaration of COTR, Apr. 12, 2000, at 2. Delta argues that the agency improperly determined that only a fully digital X-ray system would meet its needs.