BNUMBER:  B-277872 
DATE:  December 4, 1997
TITLE: Precise Construction Management, B-277872, December 4, 1997
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Matter of:Precise Construction Management

File:     B-277872

Date:December 4, 1997

Yogen Dalal for the protester.
Christopher M. Bellomy, Esq., and V. Paul Clay, Esq., Naval Facilities 
Engineering Command, for the agency.
Scott Riback, Esq., and John M. Melody, Esq., Office of the General 
Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.

DIGEST

Protest that agency improperly found bid nonresponsive is denied where 
bidder failed to acknowledge a material amendment; post-bid opening 
evidence showing  intent to comply with the terms of the amendment 
cannot serve to cure an otherwise nonresponsive bid.

DECISION

Precise Construction Management protests the actions of the Department 
of the Navy in connection with invitation for bids (IFB) No. 
N63387-96-B-4582, issued for construction and landscaping work in San 
Diego, California.  Precise maintains that the agency improperly 
failed to provide it with a copy of amendment No. 1 to the IFB and 
improperly rejected its bid as nonresponsive.

We deny the protest.

The IFB called for fixed-price bids to perform construction and 
landscaping work at the Navy's Murphy Canyon Housing facility.  As 
part of the landscaping work, the IFB called for the installation of a 
sprinkler system and specified that certain equipment components were 
to be manufactured by a firm known as Calsense.  As originally issued, 
the IFB also incorporated Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)  sec.  
52.236-5, which provides that references to equipment by trade name or 
model number shall be regarded as establishing a standard of quality 
rather than as establishing a requirement for a particular 
manufacturer's equipment.  Because the Navy wanted only Calsense 
equipment, however, it issued amendment No. 1 to  clarify the 
solicitation.  The amendment provided that, notwithstanding any other 
provision of the IFB, only Calsense irrigation equipment was 
acceptable.[1]

The Navy experienced difficulties in disseminating the amendment, in 
part, because the activity distributing the original solicitation was 
different from the activity distributing the amendment.  The activity 
distributing the IFB kept a bidders list which was updated 
periodically and should have included all firms that had obtained 
copies of the solicitation.  The bidders list used to distribute the 
amendment, however, did not include all firms that had obtained copies 
of the IFB, apparently because it had not been completely updated when 
it was forwarded to the activity distributing the amendment.  As a 
consequence, a total of nine bidders, including the protester, did not 
receive the amendment.

At bid opening, five bids were received with Precise submitting the 
apparent low bid.  Upon review of the bids, the agency found that 
Precise had not acknowledged the amendment.  Shortly after bid 
opening, Precise obtained and reviewed a copy of the amendment and 
advised the agency by letter that it had intended to furnish the 
Calsense equipment and that its price therefore remained unchanged.  
The Navy nonetheless advised Precise that its bid was nonresponsive 
because of the firm's failure to acknowledge the amendment.

The agency now concedes that its procedures for distributing the 
amendment were inadequate to ensure receipt by all prospective 
bidders, and it therefore intends to cancel and reissue the IFB.[2]  
However, Precise maintains that it instead should receive award based 
on its low price under the original IFB, because it has shown through 
evidence furnished after bid opening--specifically, a letter from its 
sprinkler system subcontractor--that it at all times intended to 
furnish the Calsense equipment.  It remains the agency's position that 
Precise's bid is nonresponsive and that Precise therefore is 
ineligible for award under the original IFB.

Precise's bid was properly found nonresponsive.  A bidder's failure to 
acknowledge a material amendment renders the bid nonresponsive since, 
absent such acknowledgment, the government's acceptance of the bid 
would not legally obligate the bidder to comply with the requirements 
of the amendment.  ABC Project Management, Inc., B-274796.2, Feb. 14, 
1997, 97-1 CPD  para.  74 at 2.  An amendment is material where it has more 
than a negligible effect on price quantity, quality, or delivery.  FAR  sec.  
14.405.  Moreover, a bidder may not properly acknowledge an amendment 
after bid opening, since this unfairly would allow the firm to decide 
after bid opening whether or not to render itself ineligible for 
award.  ABC Project Management, Inc., supra, at 2-3.

The amendment here clearly was material since it directly affected the 
bidders' legal obligation to furnish Calsense--as opposed to any other 
type of--irrigation equipment.  The amendment thus bears directly on 
quality, and Precise's bid was nonresponsive because, Precise's claim 
notwithstanding, it simply did not legally obligate the firm to 
furnish the Calsense equipment.  Precise does not maintain that the 
amendment is not material, but only that its post-bid opening 
information shows that it intends to furnish Calsense equipment.  This 
information cannot serve to cure the defect in its bid, however, since 
it was submitted after bid opening.  ABC Project Management, Inc., 
supra, at 3.  The agency therefore properly rejected Precise's bid and 
the firm is not eligible for award under the original IFB.  Under 
these circumstances, the proposed cancellation of the IFB and 
resolicitation of the requirement is proper.

The protest is denied.

Comptroller General
of the United States

1. The amendment also made several other minor changes that for 
purposes of this protest are irrelevant.

2. Because the agency has conceded error regarding the faulty 
distribution of the amendment and is resoliciting, the protester's 
challenge to the agency's failure to send it the amendment is academic 
and need not be addressed here.