A firm protested a Department of Commerce contract award for polychlorinated biphenyls electrical transformer reclassification, contending that: (1) the awardee's bid did not satisfy certain responsibility criteria; and (2) Commerce improperly made a price/technical tradeoff in making the award. The protester also claimed reimbursement for its bid and protest preparation costs. GAO held that: (1)...

Definitive responsibility criterion requiring prior successful "reclassification" of a high concentration PCB transformer to non-PCB status for a minimum of 1 year without performing additional work can be met by submission of evidence of successful reclassification for a shorter time period after which the transformer was tested to determine residual PCB content. Which established that the maximu...