Refusal To Waive First Article Preproduction Testing

An incumbent contractor, protesting a contract award to a competitor for 50,000 MJU-8/B decoy flares by the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), maintained that NAVAIR had improperly refused to waive first article preproduction testing. Since the protesting firm had been providing identical equipment under the previous year's contract, it was reasonable to anticipate that NAVAIR would waive first article approval testing and, therefore, the firm priced its bid accordingly. Although the protesting firm relied on the waiver clause in the invitation for bids (IFB), GAO held that the refusal to waive first article approval testing did not constitute an improper change by NAVAIR in the IFB evaluation scheme. An agency's determination not to waive first article approval testing is a matter of administrative discretion and is not arbitrary or capricious where the solicitation contains a more stringent testing specification than under the previous year's contract. In addition, the vendor of an essential ingredient in the required item had a break in production that could reasonably be considered to have an effect on manufacturing processes. The protest was denied.