[Protest of Continuous Inspection Requirement in USDA Invitation for Purchase]
B-212591: Dec 16, 1983
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A firm protested a requirement for continuous inspection under a Department of Agriculture (USDA) solicitation for canned fish to be procured and distributed as surplus commodities for food relief programs. The protester complained that the inspection requirement exceeded the Government's minimum needs and unduly restricted competition. USDA stated that the requirement was necessary to ensure the production and delivery of a uniform high-quality food product and a uniform quality control system. Because the solicitation provided that fish packed in 1982 would be accepted on an end-item lot inspection basis to help speed the economic recovery of the depressed industry, USDA accepted the protester's 1982 offer, but rejected its 1983 offers because the fish had not been canned in a facility approved to operate under continuous inspection. The protester contended that the continuous inspection requirement exceeded USDA actual minimum needs and that the 1983 procurement could have been inspected on an end-item lot basis consistent with the agency's standards. The protester alleged that competition was unduly restricted to those processors which had been approved to operate under continuous inspection. GAO will not question an agency's decision concerning its needs or the best methods of meeting them absent clear evidence that those decisions are arbitrary or otherwise unreasonable. Since GAO could not find the USDA requirement for continuous inspection to be unreasonable and since the protester failed to prove that the same assurances of quality and safety could be achieved through end-item lot inspection, GAO concluded that USDA did not act unreasonably by imposing the requirement. In addition, contrary to the protester's assertion, GAO found no Federal requirements for fish purchases to be inspected on an end-item basis. Accordingly, the protest was denied.
Oct 26, 2020
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Chronos Solutions, LLC; Inside Realty, LLC; BLB Resources, Inc.
We sustain the protests.
B-417870.2,B-417870.3,B-417870.4 -
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Oct 23, 2020
Oct 22, 2020
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