[Protest of DCSC Contract Award for Spare Compressor Parts]
Highlights
A firm protested two Defense Construction Supply Center (DCSC) contract awards to another firm under a brand-name solicitation for the protester's compressors for spare parts, contending that DCSC: (1) used less stringent testing methods to determine whether the awardee's parts were acceptable than it used to determine the acceptability of the brand-name parts; (2) failed to add the cost of testing to the awardee's bid price; and (3) failed to generally create an atmosphere of full competition. GAO held that: (1) it had previously considered and rejected the same arguments from the protester involving the same awardee and DCSC; (2) DCSC was not required to use the same procedures to qualify the awardee's product as it used to qualify the protester's; (3) since the solicitation did not specify that testing costs should be added to bid prices, DCSC could not have done so; and (4) its further consideration of the matter would serve no useful purpose. Accordingly, the protest was dismissed.