B-309999.3, Capitol Supply, Inc., January 22, 2008

B-309999.3 Jan 22, 2008 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Capitol Supply, Inc. protests the agency's decision to exclude its quotation from consideration under request for quotations (RFQ) No. 189760, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) to all vendors with Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts for Special Item Number (SIN) 75 200 Office Products, for the issuance of multiple non-mandatory blanket purchase agreements (BPA) to provide general office supplies, toner and paper. We deny the protest. View Decision B-309999.3, Capitol Supply, Inc., January 22, 2008 DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This redacted version has been approved for public release. Decision Matter of: Capitol Supply, Inc. File: B-309999.3 Date: January 22, 2008 Holly A. Roth, Esq., McDermott Will & Emery, and Jon W. van Horne, Esq., for the protester. Kacie A. Haberly, Esq., General Services Administration, for the agency. Nora K. Adkins, Esq., and James Spangenberg, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Agency properly excluded from consideration vendor's quotation for failing to follow the solicitation's mandatory pricing instructions under solicitation of Federal Supply Schedule vendors for issuance of multiple blanket purchase agreements for office supplies. DECISION Capitol Supply, Inc. protests the agency's decision to exclude its quotation from consideration under request for quotations (RFQ) No. 189760, issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) to all vendors with Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts for Special Item Number (SIN) 75 200 Office Products, for the issuance of multiple non-mandatory blanket purchase agreements (BPA) to provide general office supplies, toner and paper. The RFQ was to implement the goals of the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI).[1] It provided for the issuance of BPAs that would establish streamlined and common contracting vehicles that could be leveraged by users throughout the government, better allow socioeconomic goals to be satisfied by participating agencies, capture valuable expenditure data to support the FSSI, and achieve cost savings. The RFQ requested vendors to quote commercially available office products from their GSA Schedule contracts (except for furniture, electronic information technology (with a few exceptions), janitorial cleaning supplies and –break room— supplies). Multiple BPAs were to be issued as a result of the RFQ. The decision as to what vendors were to be issued BPAs was to be made on a best-value basis for a base 1-year BPA with two 1-year options. Each quotation was to be evaluated based on the following evaluation factors: socio-economic status, technical and management approach, capability and capacity, past performance, and price (including discount terms). RFQ amend. 1, at 5. Quotations were to be submitted in writing, and be fully and completely in compliance with the RFQ instructions. Each quotation was to clearly demonstrate understanding of both the general and specific requirements as well as convey the vendor's capability for transforming its understanding into successful performance under a BPA order. The RFQ cautioned that –[i]ncomplete quotes will be considered non-responsive and will not be further evaluated.— RFQ at 24. Vendors were required to submit their price quotations on an electronic pre'formatted spreadsheet provided as part of an Excel workbook by the agency.[2] Vendors were to enter their item prices as both a discount against the applicable S.P. Richards (SPR) catalog list price and as a discount against the vendor's own GSA Schedule price. RFQ amend. 2, Office Supplies Price Quote Sheet. Vendors were also required to provide with their price quotations additional volume discounts based upon designated tiered thresholds. The Excel workbook contained six tabs: instructions, contact information, definitions, SPR catalog, item pricing and volume discounts.