[Protest of BLM Contract Award]

A firm protested a contract award by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to a sole bidder under an invitation for bids (IFB) for jet aircraft blast fencing. The firm argued that it was unfairly excluded from the competition because it did not receive notice of the IFB and did not see the misclassified announcement in the Commerce Business Daily (CBD). The firm also contended that it could have met the specifications at a significantly lower price. Further, the protester asked GAO to investigate whether there was collusion in the conduct of the procurement. Regarding the issue of the IFB notice, GAO determined that BLM had made a significant effort to obtain competition because it had mailed the IFB to approximately 30 firms on the standard bidders list for fence materials, published an IFB notice in the CBD, and responded to a timely request for a copy of the IFB. GAO also determined that the CBD notice was not misclassified but properly categorized as a request for the provision of materials. With respect to the price, GAO noted that, although BLM received only one bid, the awardee's offer was only about 2.5 percent higher than the BLM estimate. GAO stated that the protester's unsupported allegation that it could supply the equipment at a lower price did not prove that the BLM estimate was unreasonable. GAO has held that neither the omission of a firm from the bidders mailing list nor the misclassification of a CBD notice prevents award or requires resolicitation where there was no deliberate attempt to exclude the protester from competition, there was a significant effort to obtain competition, and a reasonable price was obtained. Finally, GAO noted that it does not conduct independent investigations into disputed issues but relies upon the factual record developed by the parties, and it concluded that the protester failed to show any collusion or deliberate effort to exclude it from competition. Accordingly, the protest was denied.