Alleged Mishandling of Bid Samples

Protester alleged that mishandling or sabotage by the government caused its samples to be rejected. The record showed that the bid samples were handled with due care by the procuring agency, and the protester offered no evidence other than its allegation; therefore the protest was denied. In future procurements, the use of objective and subjective evaluation factors should be clearly distinguished. GAO questioned whether the nonresponsive samples should have been disassembled by the agency to determine whether they met unlisted specification requirements as the regulations provide for such evaluation only if the samples meet listed characteristics.