Guildline Instruments, Inc.

B-409924.2 Jan 13, 2015 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Guildline Instruments Inc., of Ontario, Canada, protests the Department of the Air Force's award of a contract to Measurements International Inc. (MI), of Ontario, Canada, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. FA2263-14-Q-0002, for the supply of teraohmmeters. Guildline asserts that the agency failed to conduct tests of the product sample units in accordance with the terms of the RFQ. We deny the protest. We deny the protest. View Decision Decision Matter of: Guildline Instruments Inc. File: B-409924.2 Date: January 13, 2015 Richard Timmons for the protester. Michael R. Frisz, for Measurements International Inc., the intervenor. Maj. Carlos M. De Dios, Department of the Air Force, for the agency. Kenneth Kilgour, Esq., and David A. Ashen, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest that agency improperly found awardee’s product to be technically acceptable because the agency failed to test the product is denied where solicitation indicated that comprehensive testing would be performed on production units delivered under the contract rather than on the product samples, and where the agency’s evaluation of the product sample, and the conclusion that the product is acceptable, has not been shown to be unreasonable. DECISION Guildline Instruments Inc., of Ontario, Canada, protests the Department of the Air Force’s award of a contract to Measurements International Inc. (MI), of Ontario, Canada, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. FA2263-14-Q-0002, for the supply of teraohmmeters. Guildline asserts that the agency failed to conduct tests of the product sample units in accordance with the terms of the RFQ. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND A teraohmmeter is a device for precisely measuring electrical high resistance values. The solicitation contemplated the award of a fixed-price contract, with a base year and three option years, for up to 75 teraohmmeters, to be purchased in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items, using simplified acquisition procedures. RFQ at 1-2. Award was to be made to the offeror submitting the lowest-priced, technically acceptable proposal. RFQ at 3.[1] Technical acceptability was to be determined solely on the content and merit of the information submitted in response to the RFQ. Id. The solicitation required the submission by offerors of a “product sample unit,” which “should be a commercial unit,” that was “as close to the proposed unit as possible.” RFQ at 3. While the solicitation advised offerors that the product sample unit would “undergo evaluation to ensure that it meets all of the requirements of the purchase description,” id., the solicitation also provided for the submission of product samples that might be subsequently modified, prior to the contractor’s submission of production units, in order to comply with all of the requirements of the solicitation’s purchase description. Specifically, the solicitation further provided that offerors were required to “[p]rovide detailed information on how the product sample unit will be modified to meet the technical requirements,” and that “[i]tems delivered under any resulting contract must conform to the approved product sample or approved product sample with proposed modifications.” Id. Guildline and MI submitted the only two proposals with product sample units. Contracting Officer’s Statement of Facts (COSF) at 4. When the agency subsequently made award to MI, Guildline protested to this Office. The agency then took corrective action, and we dismissed the protest. B‑409924, July 3, 2014. As part of its corrective action, the agency reevaluated both proposals. The contracting officer reports that the electrical engineer responsible for the reevaluation examined each proposal line by line to confirm that it addressed each requirement of the solicitation’s purchase description. COSF at 5. The engineer also tested three performance characteristics of the teraohmmeters: the voltage, the 1-year measurement uncertainty, and the short term stability. Id. After the initial reevaluation, the agency found both proposals to be technically unacceptable. Agency Report (AR), Exh. 30, MI Technical Evaluation Checklist, Aug. 8, 2014; AR, Exh. 31, Guildline Technical Evaluation Checklist, Aug. 9, 2014. Subsequently, after a round of clarifications followed by discussions, both proposals were found to be technically acceptable. See AR, Exhs. 39 & 40, Technical Evaluations. Award was then made to MI based on its lower evaluated price of $742,500. AR, Exh. 47, MI Revised Pricing. This protest followed. DISCUSSION Guildline asserts that the agency’s evaluation of product samples was both incomplete and otherwise unreasonable.