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B-280448 1 (1998-09-30)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptahvp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: oComptroller General of the United States Washington, D.C. 20548 Decision Matter of: Riverwood of Mississippi, hie. File: B-280448 Date: September 30, 1998 Robert S. Murphree, Esq., for the protester. Laurie Ristino, Esq., Forest Service, for the agency. Mary G. Curcio, Esq., and John M. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest that bid for timber sale should have been rejected as nonresponsive for failure to include Certificate of Small Business Status, which contained performance requirements, is denied where bid form obligated bidder to meet identical performance requirements. DECISION Riverwood of Mississippi, Inc. protests the award of a contract to Rex, Inc. under an advertisement for a Compartment 2 Timber Sale, issued by the Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, as a small business set-aside for timber located in the Delta National Forest. Riverwood asserts that the award to Rex was improper because its bid did not include a completed Certificate of Small Business Status. We deny the protest. The bid instructions provided that bidders had to complete, and submit with their bids, a Certificate of Small Business Status in order to be eligible for award as a small business. The certificate contained the definition of a small business for purposes of the sale, as well as performance requirements regarding the resale and use of the timber. Rex's high bid was accepted for award despite its failure to include the certificate. Riverwood maintains that Rex's bid instead should have been rejected as nonresponsive, and award made to Riverwood as the only eligible small business bidder. Responsiveness concerns whether a bid constitutes an offer to perform, without exception, the exact thing called for in the solicitation. Unless something on the face of the bid reduces or modifies the bidder's obligation to perform in accordance with the terms of the solicitation, the bid is responsive. The required commitment to the terms of the solicitation need not be made in the exact manner specified; all that is necessary is that the bid, in some fashion, commit the bidder to the

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