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Protest Alleging Awardee's Bid Was Nonresponsive

B-195757 Published: Sep 21, 1979. Publicly Released: Sep 21, 1979.
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Highlights

A company protested a possible contract award for the overhaul of a Navy ship. At the protester's request, a U.S. district court enjoined the Navy from making an award and this was considered to be an expression of interest by the court in a GAO decision. In order to maximize competition and enable smaller businesses to compete, the solicitation provided for three bidding lots, respectively, for dry dock work, topside work, and a combination of both. The protester argued that the potential awardee's bid should have been rejected because it failed to bid separately on one of the lots. The solicitation stated that bidders which only submitted combination lot bids unaccompanied by bids for the other two lots would not be considered. It was held that the failure of the company to submit separate bids did not relieve it from the obligation to perform the work required by one of the lots, because it bid on the combination lot which covered all of the work that was required. The failure to submit a bid for one of the lots had no effect on the price, quality, quantity, or time of performance of any contract for the combination of work. There was no valid purpose for rejecting the bid, and the protester was not prejudiced by the Navy's nonenforcement of it's lot bidding requirement because the protester was not the low bidder for any of the lots. Therefore, the protest was denied and the other bidder in question was allowed to be considered for the award. GAO recommended that the Navy revise the provision in the solicitation for future procurements which require bid rejection in such circumstances.

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