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Comptroller General
of the United States
Washington, D.C. 20548
Decision
Matter of: SMS Data Products Group, hie.
File: B-280970.4
Date: January 29, 1999
Mark J. Stechschulte, Esq., for the protester.
Paralee White, Esq., and Lisa K Miller, Esq., Gadsby & Hannah, for NetCon, Inc., an
interveno r.
Maj. David Newsome, Jr., Department of the Army, for the agency.
Paul E. Jordan, Esq., and Paul Lieberman, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO,
participated in the preparation of the decision.
DIGEST
Agency's corrective action of terminating purchase order and issuing a revised
solicitation in response to a protest is reasonable where material solicitation
requirements and the agency's written clarifications of those requirements were
susceptible to more than one reasonable interpretation.
DECISION
SMS Data Products Group, Inc. protests the Department of the Army's decision to
terminate SMS's purchase order under solicitation No. DAIHA90-98-Q-0124, and to
issue a revised request for quotations (RFQ). The Army's corrective action resulted
from a protest by Netcon, Inc., a competitor, challenging SMS's ability to meet the
RFQ specifications, which caused the Army to conclude that the specifications, as
stated and interpreted through agency responses to vendor questions, were
ambiguous. SMS contends that there was no ambiguity in the specifications and
that recompetition will result in an improper auction.
We deny the protest.
The RFQ sought quotations for a quantity of compact disk servers to Army National
Guard units. The RFQ advised prospective vendors that only GSA quotes will be
accepted (RFQ at 1, block 20) referring to products on the General Services
Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS). Prior to the submission of
quotations, a prospective vendor submitted the following question: This contractor
understands it is the government[']s intention to only accept quotes with part
numbers currently on GSA schedule as of the Solicitation issue date. Solicitation
Questions at 1. The agency responded, Correct. It is our intention to procure
this requirement from GSA schedules. Id. NetCon interpreted this response to
mean that only products on the FSS as of May 26, 1998, the RFQ issue date, could
be proposed. Since SMS had proposed items that were not on the FSS until after](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.gao/gaocrptajfa0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)