B-298575.4, Alaska Structures, Inc.--Costs, January 22, 2007

B-298575.4 Jan 22, 2007 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Alaska Structures, Inc. requests that we recommend that it be reimbursed the costs of filing and pursuing its protest challenging the terms of request for quotations (RFQ) No. W81XWH-06-T-0219, issued by the Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, Army Medical Materiel Agency, Department of the Army, for a mobile field hospital (MFH) system. We dismissed the protest after the agency advised our Office that it would take corrective action by canceling, and subsequently revising and reissuing, the RFQ. Alaska Structures argues that the agency's corrective action was unduly delayed and its protest was clearly meritorious. The protester also argues that it was forced to file its most recent protest, and incur the associated costs, because the agency failed to properly implement the corrective action promised in response to a prior protest filed by Alaska Structures raising the same alleged solicitation defects. We deny the request. View Decision B-298575.4, Alaska Structures, Inc.--Costs, January 22, 2007 Decision Matter of: Alaska Structures, Inc.--Costs File: B-298575.4 Date: January 22, 2007 Richard J. Conway, Esq., and Robert J. Moss, Esq., Dickstein Shapiro LLP, for the protester. Peter F. Pontzer, Esq., Department of the Army, for the agency. Louis A. Chiarella, Esq., and Christine S. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1. Protester is not entitled to reimbursement of the costs of filing and pursuing its protest where the agency decides to take corrective action in response to the protest, and the protest was not clearly meritorious. 2. Request for recommendation for reimbursement of protest costs relating to earlier protest which led to corrective action is denied where the record provides no support for protester's allegation that the issue which the agency's corrective action did not address was clearly meritorious. DECISION Alaska Structures, Inc. requests that we recommend that it be reimbursed the costs of filing and pursuing its protest challenging the terms of request for quotations (RFQ) No. W81XWH-06-T-0219, issued by the Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, Army Medical Materiel Agency, Department of the Army, for a mobile field hospital (MFH) system. We dismissed the protest after the agency advised our Office that it would take corrective action by canceling, and subsequently revising and reissuing, the RFQ. Alaska Structures argues that the agency's corrective action was unduly delayed and its protest was clearly meritorious. The protester also argues that it was forced to file its most recent protest, and incur the associated costs, because the agency failed to properly implement the corrective action promised in response to a prior protest filed by Alaska Structures raising the same alleged solicitation defects. We deny the request. BACKGROUND The history of the relationship between the Army and Alaska Structures regarding the agency's MFH system procurement is a long and difficult one (see Alaska Structures, Inc.--Costs, B-298156.2, July 17, 2006, 2006 CPD para. 109 for additional details).[1] As relevant here, on March 1, 2006, the Army issued RFQ No. 129731 for a 150-bed portable hospital system. On March 31, Alaska Structures protested to our Office, arguing that various terms of the RFQ were defective.[2] Specifically, the protester alleged that the agency improperly intended to purchase non-Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) items using FSS procedures; the solicitation's functional characteristics were vague and ambiguous; the RFQ failed to provide vendors with equal information concerning mandatory compatibility requirements; the solicitation contained internally inconsistent evaluation criteria; and the evaluation criteria improperly contained requirements that were not also contained in the functional characteristics. Protest (B-298156), Mar. 31, 2006, at 10-19. On April 26, the Army notified our Office of its intent to cancel the RFQ here, and to revise and reissue the solicitation. While not agreeing with all of the protester's arguments and allegations, the agency stated that it would address, in whole or in part, four of the five issues raised by Alaska Structures (i.e., all but the assertion that the RFQ's functional characteristics were improperly vague and ambiguous by failing to provide sufficient detail). Letter from Army to GAO, Apr. 26, 2006, at 3. Cancellation of the RFQ rendered Alaska Structures' protest of that solicitation academic, and since it is not our practice to consider academic protests, we dismissed the protest on May 3.[3] On May 27, the Army issued a revised solicitation, RFQ No. W81XWH-06-T-0219, for a 150-bed MFH system. The RFQ stated that the Army was procuring a commercial item in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 12.