Global-PPE, Inc. (15BFA021QWNP10709)

B-419536 Mar 10, 2021 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Global-PPE, Inc., of Leesburg, Virginia, protests the award of a contract to Phoenix Contracting LLC, of Ruskin, Florida, under Request for Quotations (RFQ) No. 15BFA021QWNP10709, issued by the Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for nitrile exam gloves. The protester contends that BOP improperly evaluated the firm's technical compliance and delivery schedule, and ultimately made an improper best-value determination. We deny the protest. View Decision 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:  Global-PPE, Inc. File:  B-419536 Date:  March 10, 2021 William K. Walker, Esq., Walker Reausaw, for the protester. Monica Barron, Esq., William D. Robinson, Esq., Oleta Vassilopoulos, Esq., Thomas Sutton, Esq., Daniel K. George, Esq, Department of Justice, for the agency. Emily R. O’Hara, Esq., and Peter H. Tran, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest challenging the agency’s evaluation of the protester’s offer is denied where the record shows that the agency reasonably found the protester’s offer failed to meet the requirements of the solicitation. DECISION     Global-PPE, Inc., of Leesburg, Virginia, protests the award of a contract to Phoenix Contracting LLC, of Ruskin, Florida, under Request for Quotations (RFQ) No. 15BFA021QWNP10709, issued by the Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for nitrile exam gloves.  The protester contends that BOP improperly evaluated the firm’s technical compliance and delivery schedule, and ultimately made an improper best-value determination. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND The RFQ, issued on December 1, 2020, contemplated a single or multiple award of fixed-price contracts for the purchase of 60 million nitrile, non-sterile, non-powdered, 4‑millimeter minimum thickness exam gloves, to be delivered to four BOP facilities.  Req. for Dismissal, Encl. 1, RFQ at 2-3.[1]  Award was to be made to the responsible offeror whose offer conformed to the requirements and was determined to provide the best value to the government.[2]  Id. at 5.  Relevant here, the solicitation specifically stated that gloves were required to be “readily available (available for immediate shipping).”  Id. at 4.  The agency received more than 90 offers, 50 of which were found to be technically acceptable.  Req. for Dismissal at 2.  Global’s offer was found to be technically unacceptable for failing to meet the solicitation’s requirement that the gloves be readily available.  Id. at 1-2.  The agency made award to Phoenix Contracting on January 11, 2021.  Id. at 2.  Global filed this protest with our office on January 19.  DISCUSSION Global challenges the agency’s source selection decision on several grounds.  The protester argues that the agency should have found its offer acceptable because its gloves were readily available, met the thickness requirement, and were offered with a reasonable delivery schedule.  Protest at 5-6.  As such, Global alleges that BOP made an improper best-value determination.  Id. at 6.  Specifically, the protester contends that it was able to meet the requirement of delivering 60 million gloves and that its offer stated that it “could provide up to 85,000,000 gloves, including . . . 5,000,000 gloves on hand with additional weekly deliveries in a reasonable time frame.”  Id.  In its response to BOP’s request for dismissal, Global acknowledges that it did not have all 60 million gloves on hand, ready for immediate delivery, when it submitted its offer.  Resp. to Req. for Dismissal at 2 (“It is true that Global did not have all 60,000,000 gloves on hand when it submitted its proposal.”).  The protester contends, however, that in reading the RFQ’s requirement that “[g]loves . . . be available for immediate delivery from a domestic location that has already cleared U.S. Customs,” the reasonable meaning of the word “gloves” is “gloves on hand,” rather than the total number of gloves required by the solicitation.  Id.; see RFQ at 4.  In other words, the protester contends that only the gloves available “on hand” had to meet the requirement of immediate delivery from a domestic location that had already cleared U.S. Customs.  The agency argues that the RFQ required 60 million gloves to be “available for immediate delivery from a domestic location that has already cleared U.S. Customs.”  Req. for Dismissal at 1, 3.  BOP explains that the protester’s offer only identified the availability of “5 Million gloves . . . for immediate shipment.”  Id.