Total Industrial & Packaging Corporation, B-295434, <st1:date Year="2005" Day="22" Month="2">February 22, 2005</st1:date>

B-295434 Feb 22, 2005 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Total Industrial & Packaging Corporation protests the noncompetitive award by Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Defense Logistics Agency of contracts to C.H.K. Manufacturing Co. Inc.; La Pac Manufacturing, Inc.; Ampack, LLC; and Dayton Bag & Burlap Co., for polypropylene sandbags. We deny the protest. View Decision B-295434, Total Industrial & Packaging Corporation, February 22, 2005 Decision Matter of: Total Industrial & Packaging Corporation File: B-295434 Date: February 22, 2005 Byron W. King, Esq., Jones, Gregg, Creehan & Gerace, for the protester. Steven B. Hilkowitz, Esq., Defense Logistics Agency, for the agency. Katherine I. Riback, Esq., and James A. Spangenberg, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Agency reasonably awarded noncompetitive contracts for sandbags to four qualified Historically Underutilized Business Zone firms to meet agencys urgent requirement for sandbags in support of military operations. DECISION Total Industrial & Packaging Corporation protests the noncompetitive award by Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Defense Logistics Agency of contracts to C.H.K. Manufacturing Co. Inc.; La Pac Manufacturing, Inc.; Ampack, LLC; and Dayton Bag & Burlap Co., for polypropylene sandbags. We deny the protest. Prior to the noncompetitive awards at issue here, on March 4, 2004, the agency issued a competitive solicitation for the sandbags, set aside for offerors that would manufacture the product in a Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone), as certified by the Small Business Administration (SBA). [1] On July 27, five contracts were awarded to HUBZone firms, including Total, under that solicitation. [2] On August 4, a stop-work order was issued to Total after the agency learned that Totals subcontractor (located in Texas) for this contract, which was manufacturing the sandbags, was not a certified HUBZone firm, and thus the sandbags being produced by that subcontractor did not meet the solicitations requirement that the sandbags be produced by a certified HUBZone firm. On August 19, Total informed the agency that it had located a new HUBZone manufacturer in Puerto Rico that it intended to use as a subcontractor. On that same date, the agency rescinded the stop-work order. On October 18, the agency notified Total that it had failed to adhere to the delivery schedule as established by its contract. Total replied on October 27 that its new subcontractor has a much smaller capacity to manufacture, and that it could not complete the deliveries until March 31, 2005. Agency Report, Tab 10, Letter from Total to Agency. On November 9, 2004, after receiving information that the material used by Totals new subcontractor to manufacture the sandbags might be foreign and that not all of the sandbags were produced at the subcontractors facility, the agency issued another stop-work order. The agency noted that the contract included the requirement that the material for the sandbags, as well as the final product, be domestically manufactured, and therefore, the agency requested proof regarding the actual manufacturer of the sandbag. The record evidences that Total has not provided the requested proof, the stop-work order is still in effect, and the agency and Total are still engaged in discussions concerning the performance of that contract. From November 5 to November 10, the agency noncompetitively issued contracts to C.H.K., La Pac, Ampack, and Dayton to satisfy urgent requirements for polypropylene sandbags in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. As indicated in the Justification and Approval, dated November 22, of these noncompetitive contracts, the sandbag requirements could not be met under current contracts for a variety of unforeseen reasons. First, developments in Iraq at the time these noncompetitive awards were made indicated that more sandbags were needed on an expedited basis to meet force-protection requirements. In addition, the sandbags currently in use in Iraq have deteriorated at an unexpectedly fast rate due to the extreme climate conditions; the suns ultraviolet rays (UV) and the wind-driven sand have more quickly broken down the polypropylene fabric than was anticipated. [3] Because of the time that would be necessary to competitively procure these urgently needed sandbags, the agency instead elected to contact known qualified HUBZone manufacturers to ascertain their capability to manufacture and deliver sandbags meeting revised UV requirements by March 2005.