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![handle is hein.gao/gaobacyfa0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
I
G A 0Comptroller General
A- Accountability * Integrity * Reliability of the United States
United States General Accounting Office
Washington, DC 20548
Decision
Matter of: Payne Construction
File: B-291629
Date: February 4, 2003
Alan Payne for the protester.
L. Benjamin Young, Jr., Esq., Department of Agriculture, for the agency.
Jennifer D. Westfall-McGrail, Esq., and Christine S. Melody, Esq., Office of the
General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
DIGEST
Agency should have considered protester's quotation where it was received prior to
agency's commencement of quotation evaluation and other vendors would not have
been prejudiced.
DECISION
Payne Construction protests the failure of the Forest Service to consider its
quotation and the agency's issuance of a purchase order to Ridgley Engineering
under request for quotations (RFQ) No. RFQ-17-02-120, for excavator piling site
preparation in Tahoe National Forest, California.
We sustain the protest.
The RFQ, which was issued on June 17, 2002 using Federal Acquisition Regulation
Part 13 simplified acquisition procedures, requested prices on 13 line subitems
(numbered lA-iF and 2A-2G), representing estimated acreages at 13 different work
sites. The solicitation contemplated the issuance of an order to the vendor whose
quotation represented the best value to the government. Factors to be considered in
the determination of best value included price, experience, delivery, quality, and past
performance. The RFQ invited interested firms to [p]lease furnish quotations to the
issuing office in block 5a on or before close of business July 16, 2002.
Neither Ridgley nor Payne furnished a quotation by the July 16 due date. Two other
vendors did provide quotations, but the agency determined that one was
unrealistically low in price and that the other was from a vendor who had
experienced difficulties in completing work on time. Contracting Officer's Statement](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.gao/gaobacyfa0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)