BNUMBER:  B-278479 
DATE:  December 10, 1997
TITLE: Fluid Power International, Inc., B-278479, December 10, 1997
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Matter of:Fluid Power International, Inc.

File:     B-278479

Date:December 10, 1997

Elizabeth S. Phelps for the protester.
Richard N. Wolf, Esq., and Shawn T. Gallagher, Esq., National 
Aeronautics & Space Administration, for the agency.
Adam Vodraska, Esq., and James A. Spangenberg, Esq., Office of the 
General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.

DIGEST

Protester's quote under a small business-small purchase set-aside was 
properly rejected where it did not offer the product of a small 
business as required by the nonmanufacturer rule applicable to this 
solicitation.

DECISION

Fluid Power International, Inc., (FPI) protests the actions of the 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with regard to 
request for quotations (RFQ) No. 1-067-GGI.2049 for an in-line filter 
assembly to be installed in a wind tunnel at NASA's Langley Research 
Center.

We dismiss the protest.

Under the simplified acquisition procedures being used here, an 
acquisition of supplies that has an anticipated dollar value exceeding 
$2,500 and not exceeding $100,000, as anticipated here, is reserved 
exclusively for small business concerns in accordance with the 
set-aside procedures of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 
19.5.  FAR  sec.  13.105(a).  The RFQ, pursuant to FAR  sec.  19.508(c), 
incorporated the required Notice of Total Small Business Set-Aside, 
FAR  sec.  52.219-6, which provides that, for a small business set-aside, a 
small business concern submitting an offer in its own name agrees to 
furnish, in performing the contract, only end items manufactured or 
produced by itself or other domestic small business concerns; this 
requirement is known as the "nonmanufacturer rule."  FAR  sec.  19.001, 
19.102(f)(1).

The nonmanufacturer rule may be waived where the acquisition is for a 
product in a class for which the Small Business Administration (SBA) 
has determined that there are no small business manufacturers in the 
Federal market, FAR  sec.  19.102(f)(4), or where, for a specific 
acquisition, the contracting officer determines that there are no 
known domestic small business manufacturers that can reasonably be 
expected to offer a product meeting the requirements of the 
solicitation, FAR  sec.  19.102(f)(5), and the SBA, in response to the 
contracting officer's request, waives the requirement with respect to 
that solicitation, FAR  sec.  19.502-2(c).  An SBA waiver implemented in 
the solicitation permits a small business to provide any firm's 
product in response to the solicitation.  Id.; see Adrian Supply Co., 
B-257261, Sept. 15, 1994, 95-1 CPD  para.  21 at 3.  The solicitation at 
issue here is not for a product in a class for which the SBA has 
waived the nonmanufacturer rule.  The contracting officer reports that 
she did not seek a waiver of the nonmanufacturer rule from SBA for 
this RFQ because she could not determine that there were no small 
business manufacturers of the solicited item.  

NASA received three quotes in response to this RFQ.  Pall Advance 
Separations Systems, a large business, submitted the low quote and FPI 
the second lowest quote.  FPI's quote offered Pall's product.

NASA issued the purchase order to Pall.  When FPI brought Pall's large 
business status to the attention of NASA, the order was cancelled.  
NASA determined that FPI's quote was unacceptable and FPI was 
ineligible for award because FPI was a small business nonmanufacturer, 
but it offered an end item manufactured by a large business, which was 
prohibited by the RFQ.  Since the third offeror, a small business 
concern, also proposed the product of a large business, the 
contracting officer concluded that NASA had received no acceptable 
offers from responsible small business concerns.  Thus, the 
contracting officer decided to withdraw the small business set-aside, 
cancel the RFQ, and resolicit on an unrestricted basis.  FPI was so 
informed and protested to our Office. 

Notwithstanding that FPI certified in its quote that it is a small 
business concern, its quote was predicated on furnishing a product 
manufactured by Pall, a large business.  Thus, NASA properly 
considered FPI's quote unacceptable because it was not offering to 
comply with the nonmanufacturer rule under this total small business 
set-aside, which, unless waived, requires that the product of a small 
business be offered.   See Innovative Refrigeration Concepts, 
B-258655, Feb. 10, 1995, 95-1 CPD  para.  61 at 4-5; Food Tech Indus. Co., 
Inc., B-232791, Oct. 25, 1988, 88-2 CPD  para.  392 at 1-2.  Moreover, it 
would have been improper for NASA to seek a waiver from the SBA of the 
nonmanufacturer rule after quotes were received in order to make award 
to FPI under the RFQ because, even if granted, this would allow for 
award to be made on a materially different basis from that on which 
quotes were solicited and would be prejudicial to other vendors or 
potential vendors.  See Adrian Supply Co., supra at 7; General Metals, 
Inc., B-247560, May 29, 1992, 92-1 CPD  para.  486 at 2; Data Equip., Inc., 
GSBCA No. 12506-P, Sept. 28, 1993, 94-1 BCA  para.  26446, 1993 BPD  para.  268.  
Accordingly, we think FPI has no valid legal basis upon which to 
object to the contracting officer's decision not to issue the purchase 
order to FPI under this small business-small purchase set-aside.[1]  
Since the contracting officer received no acceptable offers from 
responsible small business concerns, she acted reasonably in 
withdrawing the set-aside and in deciding to resolicit for the item on 
an unrestricted basis.  FAR  sec.  19.502-2(a).

Because FPI's quote is ineligible for award, we also see no useful 
purpose in addressing the improprieties alleged by FPI in NASA's 
placement of the order directly with FPI's large business supplier 
since NASA promptly corrected this mistake.  FPI's claim for bid 
preparation and protest costs is denied since we are dismissing the 
protest.  East West Research, Inc., B-243224, Mar. 19, 1991, 91-1 CPD  para.  
303 at 3.

The protest is dismissed.

Comptroller General
of the United States 

1. FPI contends that in offering to supply the product of a large 
business it relied upon the oral advice of a contracting official that 
the product of any manufacturer could be offered.  However, any such 
direction from that contracting official would represent a material 
change to the terms of the RFQ, which clearly stated that the 
acquisition was a total small business set-aside and did not allow for 
the products of large businesses.  Where, as here, an alleged oral 
modification to the solicitation is inconsistent with the written 
solicitation, absent a written amendment or confirmation of the oral 
advice, we will find unreasonable a protester's reliance on the 
alleged oral representation.   See Rick Manning, B-257095, July 28, 
1994, 94-2 CPD  para.  50 at 3.