Crown Contract Services, B-288573, October 31, 2001

B-288573 Oct 31, 2001 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights DIGEST Solicitation quantity estimates for hospital linen and laundry services are unobjectionable where based on the best available information. Adjusted to reflect the anticipated increase that will result from facility usage by a known group of newly eligible patients. Alleging that the RFP quantity estimates are defective because they overstate the agency's actual needs. Objecting that there was no provision to reimburse the contractor for loss of the furnished linen due to acts of government personnel. Where estimates are provided in a solicitation. There is no requirement that they be absolutely correct. The agency report states that the workload estimate is based on recent historical data (which was provided in the RFP). View Decision Crown Contract Services, B-288573, October 31, 2001 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION Crown Contract Services protests the terms of request for proposals (RFP) No. DADA08-01-T-0258, issued by the Department of the Army for linen and laundry services for the Moncrief Army Community Hospital at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, alleging that the RFP quantity estimates are defective because they overstate the agency's actual needs. We deny the protest. The RFP, issued on July 13, 2001, contemplates a requirements contract for linen and laundry services at Moncrief Hospital for a base year with four option years, and provides total yearly quantity estimates in ascending order, ranging from 536,000 pounds for the base year to 544,000 pounds for the final option year, with a 2,000 pound increase each year. /1/ Crown currently provides laundry services for all of Fort Jackson, including Moncrief Hospital. The agency recently determined that Moncrief Hospital would better meet its needs if the facility discontinued the practice of owning and managing its own linens. As a result, the agency plans to terminate the Moncrief Hospital portion of Crown's contract, and has issued the instant RFP soliciting proposals to supply the hospital linens as well as to launder them. On August 7, 2001, prior to the closing date, Crown protested to the agency that the RFP estimates appeared to be overstated based on comparison with the actual workload at Moncrief over the past year, and objecting that there was no provision to reimburse the contractor for loss of the furnished linen due to acts of government personnel. Agency Report (AR), Tab H, Agency-Level Protest, at 1. The agency denied Crown's protest on August 10, whereupon Crown filed this protest with our Office, raising the same issues. /2/ As a general rule, a procuring agency must give sufficient detail in a solicitation to enable offerors to compete intelligently and on a relatively equal basis. Lederle-Praxis Biologicals Div., American Cyanamid Corp., B-257104 et al., Aug. 22, 1994, 94-2 CPD Para. 205 at 5. Under a solicitation for an indefinite quantity of goods or services, estimates permit an agency to compare proposals on an equal basis and ascertain which offeror submitted the lowest overall cost, and provide offerors with the information needed to price their goods or services intelligently. West Coast Copy, Inc., Pacific Photocopy and Research Servs., B-254044, B-254044.2, Nov. 16, 1993, 93-2 CPD Para. 283 at 7. Where estimates are provided in a solicitation, there is no requirement that they be absolutely correct; rather they must be based on the best information available and present a reasonably accurate representation of the agency's anticipated actual needs. Service Technicians, Inc., B-249329.2, Nov. 12, 1992, 92-2 CPD Para. 342 at 2. Here, the agency report states that the workload estimate is based on recent historical data (which was provided in the RFP), updated by factoring in the average annual volume increase of approximately 3 percent, plus an upward adjustment to reflect the impact of an additional 700 elderly beneficiaries who become eligible to use the Moncrief facilities on October 1, 2001, under the new "Tricare Plus" program. AR at 1-2. Crown had initially protested that the estimates were excessive simply on the basis that the estimated quantities exceed current usage, pointing to the actual workload of 445,639 pounds of linen for fiscal year 2000, the most recent complete year total. Protest at 3. Upon learning from the agency report that the increase also reflected the anticipated additional patient load of 700 newly eligible Tricare Plus beneficiaries, Crown objected that it had not been provided with this information until after its protest was filed with our Office, and suggested that this justification may have been created in an effort to substantiate the agency estimate. Alternatively, Crown objected that the agency did not use reasonable care in calculating the precise impact of the increased user population.