[Protest of Proposed Forest Service Contract Awards for Fence Construction]

A firm protested proposed Forest Service contract awards for six bid items covering fence construction at six locations, contending that the firms and individual partners in the firms: (1) violated their Certificates of Independent Price Determination; (2) engaged in multiple bidding; and (3) structured their bidding in a manner that enabled them to avoid the solicitation's various bond requirements. GAO has held that: (1) the purpose of the certification is to ensure that bidders do not collude to set prices or restrict competition by inducing others not to submit bids, which would be a criminal act; (2) it is not within its jurisdiction to determine what constitutes a violation of a criminal statute; (3) multiple bidding is not objectionable where it is not prejudicial to the interests of the government or other bidders; (4) there is no blanket prohibition against partners competing as individuals in a procurement for which their partnership is also competing; and (5) the purpose of a bid bond is to guarantee that the government will recover its costs if the bidder revokes its offer after award and to ensure that the successful bidder will furnish the performance bonds for the protection of the government in case of default. GAO found that: (1) the protester presented no evidence showing that the proposed awardees did not arrive at their bid prices independently; (2) there were no multiple bids as each partner bid in his own name as an individual and not on behalf of the partnership; and (3) the solicitation provided for multiple awards and allowed bidders to exempt themselves from bonding requirements if the awards were limited to $25,000. Accordingly, the protest was denied.