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B-237225.2, Nov 17, 1989, 89-2 CPD 476

B-237225.2 Nov 17, 1989
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PROCUREMENT - Contractor Qualification - Responsibility - Contracting officer findings - Affirmative determination - GAO review DIGEST: The General Accounting Office will not review an affirmative responsibility determination absent a showing of possible fraud or bad faith or misapplication of definitive responsibility criteria. TFA contends that Stacie Harris failed to submit a fully completed and signed "Experience Questionnaire" as was required by the contracting office for evaluation of offerors. " the award was improper because Stacie Harris's incomplete experience questionnaire could not have been properly evaluated. TFA alleges that since Stacie Harris' price was 18 percent below the government estimate this may indicate a lack of understanding of the work required.

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B-237225.2, Nov 17, 1989, 89-2 CPD 476

PROCUREMENT - Contractor Qualification - Responsibility - Contracting officer findings - Affirmative determination - GAO review DIGEST: The General Accounting Office will not review an affirmative responsibility determination absent a showing of possible fraud or bad faith or misapplication of definitive responsibility criteria.

The Forestry Association, Inc.:

The Forestry Association, Inc. (TFA), protests the award of a contract to Stacie Harris and Associates under request for quotation (RFQ) No. R3-01- 89-50, issued by the Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, for timber site work in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests.

We dismiss the protest.

TFA contends that Stacie Harris failed to submit a fully completed and signed "Experience Questionnaire" as was required by the contracting
office for evaluation of offerors.
TFA asserts that since the RFQ stated
award would be made to the offeror with the offer "most advantageous to
the government, cost or price and other factors, specified elsewhere in
this solicitation, considered," the award was improper because Stacie
Harris's incomplete experience questionnaire could not have been properly
evaluated.
TFA alleges that since Stacie Harris' price was 18 percent
below the government estimate this may indicate a lack of understanding of
the work required.

The RFQ did not elsewhere list any evaluation factors other than price,
nor did it contain any definitive responsibility criteria.
Whether a
bidder has the apparent ability and capacity to perform under a contract
is a question of the firm's responsibility.
Montgomery Elevator Co.,
B-220655, Jan. 28, 1986, 86-1 CPD Para. 98.
Under our Bid Protest
Regulations, we will not review a contracting officer's affirmative
responsibility determination absent a showing of possible fraud or bad
faith, or that definitive responsibility criteria in the solicitation were
not met.
4 C.F.R. Sec. 21.3(m)(5) (1989).
To show possible fraud or bad
faith, we require that the protester present facts that reasonably
indicate that the government actions complained of were improperly
motivated.
See Vangard Indus., Inc., B-233490.2, Dec. 21, 1988, 88-2 CPD
Para. 615.

Here, TFA alleges no such facts.
Further, the "Experience Questionnaire"
referred to by TFA merely calls for information relating to an offeror's
responsibility, without establishing any definitive responsibility
criteria which offerors were required to meet.
Accordingly, we have no
basis to review the Forest Service's affirmative determination of
responsibility.

The protest is dismissed.

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