Protester Maintained Competitor's Product Did Not Meet Specifications

The Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LL), a Government-owned facility, accepted a low bid for the purchase of an automatic logic board tester, but the award was protested by another bidder who maintained that the Model 3700 tester that was accepted did not satisfy specification requirements. The protester contended that the Model 3700 was unsatisfactory because: it did not have multilevel pin electronics, its dual programmable power supplies were optional in variance with requirements, it did not have analog voltage measurement capability, and it did not furnish evidence of a hardware gray code generator, as required. LL argued that the Model 3700 complied with all technical requirements: the drive and receive pins of the model tester were capable of being set, the Model 3700 did have analog voltage measurement capability, the specifications allowed operator action such as the use of a probe to test analog devices, and the Model 3700 satisfied the gray code generator requirement. GAO agreed with LL that technical requirements had been met by the Model 3700. The operator contractor operating a Government-owned facility may determine whether an item satisfies requirements. The protester also objected that the Model 3700 was not a standard commercial product as required, but this new protest was untimely. However, GAO noted that LL erred in accepting a 90-day warranty instead of the required 1-year warranty without notifying all offerors.