[Protest of NAVFAC Rejection of Bid for Hospital Housekeeping Services]

A firm protested the Naval Facilities Engineering Command's (NAVFAC) rejection of its bid as nonresponsive for hospital housekeeping services, contending that: (1) NAVFAC improperly included an outdated version of the certificate of procurement integrity clause in the solicitation; and (2) the submission of a certificate of procurement integrity is a matter of responsibility, not responsiveness. GAO held that the contracting officer properly rejected the protester's bid as nonresponsive, since the: (1) protester omitted a material paragraph in its retyped certificate of procurement integrity, making it unclear if it would be bound to all of the solicitation requirements; (2) certification requirement, which imposed substantial legal obligations on the contractor, was a matter of responsiveness; and (3) NAVFAC failure to include the most current version of the certificate did not relieve the protester from its obligation to comply with it. Accordingly, the protest was denied.