B-228190.2, Oct 5, 1987, 87-2 CPD 336
Highlights
PROCUREMENT - Bid Protests - GAO Procedures - GAO Decisions - Reconsideration PROCUREMENT - Bid Protests - GAO Procedures - Purposes - Competition Enhancement DIGEST: General Accounting Office will not review a protest that the government should issue a solicitation with more restrictive specifications. Prior dismissal of protest on that issue is affirmed. We dismissed Baird's initial protest involving the subject solicitation because we concluded that the effect of Baird's protest was that Baird should be awarded a sole source contract contrary to the requirement for full and open competition. Which is that the procurement of any untested "state-of the-art" system will have an adverse effect on the Department of Defense Joint Oil Analysis Program (JOAP).
B-228190.2, Oct 5, 1987, 87-2 CPD 336
PROCUREMENT - Bid Protests - GAO Procedures - GAO Decisions - Reconsideration PROCUREMENT - Bid Protests - GAO Procedures - Purposes - Competition Enhancement DIGEST: General Accounting Office will not review a protest that the government should issue a solicitation with more restrictive specifications; therefore, prior dismissal of protest on that issue is affirmed.
Baird Corporation-- Reconsideration:
Baird Corporation protests that Department of the Air Force request for proposals (RFP) No. F41608-87-R-1605, issued to procure inductively coupled spectrometers, does not limit offers to systems based on the Baird Fluid Analysis Spectrometer FAS-2C. We dismissed Baird's initial protest involving the subject solicitation because we concluded that the effect of Baird's protest was that Baird should be awarded a sole source contract contrary to the requirement for full and open competition. Baird now contends that we misinterpreted the thrust of its protest, which is that the procurement of any untested "state-of the-art" system will have an adverse effect on the Department of Defense Joint Oil Analysis Program (JOAP), conducted by the Departments of the Air Force, Army and Navy, since the FAS-2C system is the only system that is compatible with the ones currently in use. Baird also asserts that its FAS-2C is the only system that has been field tested to insure proper performance.
The purpose of the General Accounting Office's role in resolving bid protests is to ensure that the statutory requirement for full and open competition in the award of government contracts is met. Our Office therefore will not review a protest that an agency should have drafted more restrictive specifications in order to meet the protester's definition of the agency's minimum needs. C.R. Daniels, Inc., B-221313, Apr. 22, 1986, 86-1 CPD Para. 390. In this regard, while Baird denies that it is suggesting a solesource award to itself, we note that the essence of its protest is that procurement should not be continued under the protested solicitation "when in fact the Air Force already has the means to purchase this same equipment under Bairds contract which is in their logistics system."
We therefore conclude that our prior dismissal was proper.