All Building Services, Inc., B-293519, March 23, 2004

B-293519 Mar 23, 2004 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights DIGEST Protest against rejection of proposal as unacceptable is denied where. The offeror created doubt as to whether it was obligating itself to perform the additional work and the proposal therefore was technically unacceptable. Award was to be made to the responsible offeror whose offer. Were significantly more important than price. Under CLIN 0006 offerors were to specify a credit if the agency "relamped" certain lamps. Amendment No. 1 included a revised price schedule that included boxes in which offerors were to provide prices for these two additional CLINs on a monthly basis. Eight proposals were received by the closing date. The agency was unable to evaluate two proposals. Because the pricing was incomplete. View Decision All Building Services, Inc., B-293519, March 23, 2004 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION All Building Services, Inc. (ABS) protests the General Services Administration's (GSA) award of a contract to Enovity, Inc., under request for proposals (RFP) No. GS-09P-03-KSC-0155, for operation and maintenance services at the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco, California. ABS challenges the agency's rejection of its proposal as unacceptable. We deny the protest. The RFP, issued as a small business set-aside for a commercial item, contemplated the award of a fixed-price contract, for a base year with four option years, for operation, maintenance and repair services. Award was to be made to the responsible offeror whose offer, conforming to the solicitation, would be most advantageous to the government, price and other factors considered. According to the RFP, the technical evaluation factors, when combined, were significantly more important than price. The RFP advised that since the agency intended to evaluate proposals and award a contract without conducting discussions, an offeror's initial proposal should contain the firm's best terms from a technical and price standpoint. On October 15, 2003, prior to the scheduled October 20 closing time for receipt of initial proposals, the agency issued amendment No. 1, which deleted and modified significant portions of the solicitation, and added two additional contract line item numbers (CLINs), CLIN 0005 and 0006. CLIN 0005 represented an option, to be exercised at the discretion of the agency, that the service call desk, already required under the RFP, receive and input data from utility invoices on all utility accounts in GSA buildings located throughout GSA's Pacific Rim Region, which includes California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii. According to the agency, this region averages 600 to 700 accounts invoicing monthly, for a maximum average of 35 invoices per working day. The contractor would receive the invoice from the appropriate GSA representative, input the data from each invoice, point out to the respective GSA official any charges that cannot be input for that utility company and service, and send the invoices to the GSA Finance Center within 2 working days. Amendment No. 1, Performance Work Statement Sec. C.4.8. Under CLIN 0006 offerors were to specify a credit if the agency "relamped" certain lamps, and provided certain "lamp stockage" from that point forward. Amendment No. 1 included a revised price schedule that included boxes in which offerors were to provide prices for these two additional CLINs on a monthly basis. Amendment No. 1 also extended the closing time to October 24. Eight proposals were received by the closing date. The agency was unable to evaluate two proposals, including ABS's, because the pricing was incomplete. Although ABS acknowledged amendment No. 1, it submitted its prices on the original price schedule, rather than on the revised price schedule that was furnished with the amendment; as a result, ABS did not provide prices for CLINs 0005 and 0006, and its proposal was determined to be unacceptable. The agency made award based on initial proposals to Enovity, which offered the second highest price of $8,680,658 but received the highest technical score. ABS states that its failure to submit prices for CLINs 0005 and 0006 was a minor informality. According to the protester, by acknowledging amendment No. 1, it obligated itself to perform in accordance with the terms of the RFQ as revised by the amendment. In any case, argues the protester, the amendment did make a material change to the RFP. We find that GSA properly determined ABS's proposal to be unacceptable. Again, CLIN 0005, an option to be exercised at the discretion of the agency, requested a per-month price for having the service call desk, already required under the RFP, also receive and input data from utility invoices on all utility accounts in GSA buildings located throughout GSA's Pacific Rim Region, pointing out to the respective GSA official any charges that cannot be input for that utility company and service.