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G A O0 Comptroller General
A a * Integrity Reliability of the United States
~ccountabthty Inert Rea iy
United States General Accounting Office
Washington, DC 20548
Decision
Matter of: Elementar Americas, Inc.
File: B-289115
Date: January 11, 2002
Scott Hughes for the protester.
Alan D. Groesbeck, Esq., Department of Agriculture, for the agency.
Charles W. Morrow, Esq., and James A. Spangenberg, Esq., Office of the General
Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
DIGEST
Procuring agency unreasonably evaluated the protester's quote of an equal product
under a brand name or equal solicitation conducted under simplified acquisition
procedures where the procuring agency did not reasonably consider the protester's
descriptive literature describing the characteristics of its product.
DECISION
Elementar Americas, Inc. protests the issuance of a purchase order to CE Elantech,
Inc. under request for quotations (RFQ) No. EAZ-33-01-104, issued by the United
States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Asheville, North Carolina, for a
112-302-15 CE Instruments Model Flash EAl 112 Combustion Nitrogen/Carbon
Analyzer, OR EQUAL.
We sustain the protest.
The RFQ, issued July 26, 2001, was conducted under the simplified acquisition and
commercial items procedures contained in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
Parts 12 and 13. The Forest Service posted the requirement on CBDNET on July 11
with no identified salient physical, functional, or performance characteristics that
equal products must meet to be acceptable for award, except the statement that
[e]quipment should have ability to run samples in approximately 3 minutes.
Agency Report, Tab B, CBDNET Notice. The RFQ then specified the solicited
equipment, also without listing any salient characteristics or other essential
minimum requirements to be met by an equal product, but advised that quotes
should contain:](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.gao/gaocrptaoby0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)