BNUMBER:  B-274328
DATE:  November 20, 1996
TITLE:  C.R. Hipp Construction Co., Inc.

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Matter of:C.R. Hipp Construction Co., Inc.

File:     B-274328

Date:November 20, 1996

Al Hitchcock for the protester.
Peter M. Kushner, Esq., Diane D. Hayden, Esq., and George N. Brezna, 
Esq., Department of the Navy, for the agency.
Andrew T. Pogany, Esq., and Michael R. Golden, Esq., Office of the 
General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.

DIGEST

Where the bid opening officer receives a mailed bid from the agency 
mail clerk while he was walking en route from the building's foyer 
(where he declared that no more hand-carried bids would be accepted) 
to the bid opening room, bid was properly considered as timely 
received by the agency where solicitation did not designate particular 
office for receipt of bids and bid was received in the mailroom prior 
to the declared bid opening time.

DECISION

C.R. Hipp Construction Co., Inc. protests the award of a contract to 
Ely Energy, Inc. under invitation for bids (IFB) No. N62467-95-B-0784, 
issued by the Department of the Navy, Southern Division, Naval 
Facilities Engineering Command, Charleston, South Carolina, to provide 
and install a propane/air system, including propane storage tanks, at 
a military facility.  Hipp contends that Ely's bid should have been 
rejected as late.

We deny the protest.

Bid opening was scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on June 13, 1996.  At 
approximately     2:15 p.m., the bid opening official arrived in the 
main foyer of the agency's building to meet any bidders, accept 
hand-carried bids, and keep the bidders in the foyer until bid opening 
time.  The facility is a secured access building and the main foyer 
entrance is the only point of building entry for bidders.  At 2:30 
p.m., the bid opening official announced in the foyer that "it is now 
2:30 and no more hand carried bids will be accepted."  He then began 
to escort bidders to the bid opening room where the bid box is kept.  
En route to the bid opening room, approximately 1 minute after he had 
announced that no more hand-carried bids would be accepted, he 
encountered a Southern Division mailroom clerk who handed him a mailed 
bid received at the mailroom.  Recognizing that the envelope contained 
a bid, the bid opening official accepted the envelope from the agency 
mail clerk and continued to walk to the bid opening room.  Once there, 
and several minutes later, he opened the bid box, the other bids were 
removed, and he proceeded with bid opening.  Ely's bid was low.  The 
agency initially considered Ely's bid as late but subsequently 
determined that Ely had submitted a timely bid.  This protest followed 
from Hipp, the second low bidder.

The agency properly considered Ely's bid.  The Federal Acquisition 
Regulation (FAR) requires that bids be submitted and received in the 
"office designated in the invitation for bids . . . not later than the 
exact time set for opening of bids."  FAR    sec.  14.302(a); see also  sec.  
14.304-1.  The "office designated" typically is a specific location of 
the office responsible for the ultimate receipt and safeguarding of 
the bids.  That location usually will be identified by name, see, 
e.g., Adrian Supply Co., B-243904; B-243904.2, Aug. 7, 1991, 91-2 CPD  para.  
140 ("Operational Contracting Division"); Cost Bros., Inc. and Lori 
Waterproofing, Inc., B-213257 et. al., Apr. 24, 1984, 84-1 CPD  para.  469 
("Chief, Purchase & Contracting Section (90C)"), by code or symbol, 
see, e.g., Nuaire, Inc., B-221551, Apr. 2, 1986, 86-1 CPD  para.  314 ("VA 
Medical Center 648/90f"), or by room number.  See Larry J. Robinson & 
Co., Inc., B-234991, June 13, 1989, 89-1 CPD  para.  559 ("Rm C-121").  In 
such cases, receipt by the agency's mailroom or other receiving 
facility does not constitute receipt by the "office designated" in the 
IFB for receipt of bids.  LectroMagnetics, 56 Comp. Gen. 50 (1976), 
76-2 CPD  para.  371.  See also Adrian Supply Co., supra (an APO address is 
"an intermediate stop in transit" and thus receipt of a bid at that 
address does not constitute receipt at the designated location, the 
"Operational Contracting Division").

In some cases, however, agencies do not identify a specific office or 
location for receipt of mailed bids--the designated office is simply 
the agency's generic address.  In these cases, there is no "office 
designated in the invitation for bids" other than, in effect, the 
agency's point of receipt; this means that a bidder's obligation to 
submit its bid so that it is received in the "office designated . . . 
not later than the exact time set for opening of bids" is satisfied if 
the bid is received at the agency's point of receipt by the bid 
opening time.

Here, the agency explains that it views Ely's bid as timely received 
because the IFB did not identify a specific location for receipt of 
mailed bids, all of the Southern Division including its mailroom is 
located in one building and its practice is to "receive and date time 
stamp mailed bids in the mail room" and then deliver them to the 
procurement office or directly to the bid box in the bid opening room, 
and Ely's bid was received in the mailroom at 2:28 p.m.[1]

We see no reason to disagree with the agency.  Since the IFB did not 
designate a specific location within the agency for bids to be 
received, the agency's practice of considering receipt as occurring at 
its mailroom under these circumstances is reasonable and not 
inconsistent with any provision of the FAR.  Moreover, it is not 
apparent how consideration of Ely's bid in these circumstances would 
adversely affect the competitive bid system--the cutoff point for both 
mailed and hand-carried bids such as the protester's is exactly the 
same.[2]  Accordingly, we consider Ely's bid to have been timely 
received and its acceptance to be proper.

The protest is denied.

Comptroller General
of the United States

1. The bid was stamped in at 2:32 p.m., but the agency determined that 
the mailroom clock was 4 minutes fast when compared to the clock used 
to determine the bid agency time, which had been set shortly before 
bid opening to Naval Observatory.

2. While it is possible that in some instances a bid timely received 
in the agency's mailroom will not be delivered to the bid opening room 
in time for the public bid opening, that is not an impediment to 
viewing the bid as having been timely received.  The procurement 
regulations and our decisions permit, under appropriate circumstances, 
consideration of bids that were not available at bid opening.  See FAR  sec.  
14.304-1; Lockley Mfg. Co., Inc., 59 Comp. Gen. 189 (1980), 80-1 CPD  para.  
15.