[Protest of GSA Bid Rejection]

A firm protested the General Services Administration's (GSA) rejection of its bid for hand tools asserting that the contracting officer improperly determined that its bid was nonresponsive. The solicitation specified that a bid would be rejected unless it was clear from the bid that the parts fully conformed to the specifications. Penciled notations on the protester's bid left it unclear as to whether certain part numbers represented tools that complied with the specifications. Therefore, the bid was rejected as nonresponsive. The protester contended that its bid complied with the essential elements of the solicitation and thus was responsive. It asserted that the penciled notations were solely for its internal recordkeeping and did not qualify its bid. In addition, the protester believed that the contracting officer should have asked the firm for clarification. Finally, the protester stated that it was recently awarded a GSA contract based on a bid with similar notations. GAO concluded that the protest was without legal merit. The insertion of unsolicited part numbers in a bid, even where included merely for internal control purposes, creates an ambiguity in the bid. A contracting officer must reject such bids as nonresponsive unless they contain an express statement, or the contracting officer determines, that the specified equipment conforms to the specifications. In this case, nothing in the bid resolved the ambiguity. GAO stated that a bidder may not explain its ambiguous bid after bid opening since it would then be in a position to either disavow or affirm the bid. GAO found that the fact that the protester had recently been awarded a GSA contract under similar circumstances was irrelevant since an improper award in one or more procurements does not justify repetition of the same error. Therefore, GAO concluded that the contracting officer properly rejected the protester's bid. GAO found that any deficiency in the notice of rejection was merely procedural and, consequently, did not affect the validity of the award. Accordingly, the protest was denied.