[Protests Concerning DLA Procurement of Laryngoscope Kits]

A firm protested the Defense Logistics Agency's (DLA) rejection of its bid as nonresponsive for failure to acknowledge receipt of a solicitation amendment, contending that: (1) since it did not receive a copy of the amendment, DLA should not have rejected its bid; and (2) since the amendment for item one cited specifications already incorporated in the solicitation, it was not material and would not affect its bid price. GAO noted that DLA waived the protester's failure to acknowledge the solicitation amendment for item one but not the failure to acknowledge the amendment to item two. The second low bidder protested that the amendment for item one was material, and failure to acknowledge it should not have been waived. GAO held that: (1) where an agency fails to provide a bidder with a copy of a material amendment due to a clerical error, failure to acknowledge that amendment renders a bid nonresponsive; (2) the first protester's bid was nonresponsive with respect to item two because it had not acknowledged receipt of the amendment or alleged a deliberate effort to exclude it from competition; (3) DLA properly waived the first protester's failure to acknowledge the amendment to item one since it imposed no additional obligations on the bidder; and (4) since the original solicitation did not state the government's specific requirements with respect to item two, failure to acknowledge receipt of that amendment could not be waived as an informality. Accordingly, the first protest was dismissed in part and denied in part, and the second protest was denied.