[Protest of Proposed Navy Contract Award to Any Other Firm]

A firm protested the proposed award of a contract to any bidder other than itself under an invitation for bids (IFB) issued by the Navy. The solicitation required unit and extended prices on a per-square-foot basis for removal and replacement of deck tile and terrazzo on vessels being repaired at a naval air station. The protester asserted that the low bidder was not responsible since it had given notice that it would not comply with an IFB requirement to provide products that were on a referenced Qualified Products List (QPL). The protester also contended that, if compliance with the QPL was not found to be mandatory, the solicitation was ambiguous. GAO found that bidders were not required to identify the product that they intended to supply anywhere in their bids, so the question of the firm's capability to supply an acceptable product involved bidder responsibility. GAO does not review affirmative determinations of responsibility unless fraud or bad faith on the part of the contracting officials is demonstrated or definitive responsibility criteria in the solicitation have not been applied. GAO also held that: (1) it will not review whether a contractor actually complies with specifications during the performance of a contract because it is a matter of contract administration; and (2) a solicitation must be read as a whole in a reasonable manner and is not ambiguous if it is not subject to more than one reasonable interpretation. Accordingly, the protest was denied.