BNUMBER:  B-278627 
DATE:  January 23, 1998
TITLE: Sverdrup Civil, Inc., B-278627, January 23, 1998
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Matter of:Sverdrup Civil, Inc.

File:     B-278627

Date:January 23, 1998 

David G. Loseman, Esq., Armstrong, Teasdale, Schlafly & Davis, for the 
protester.
Alan P. Shapiro, Esq., Department of the Army, for the agency.
Robert Arsenoff, Esq., and Paul I. Lieberman, Esq., Office of the 
General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.

DIGEST

Protest that agency should have rejected awardee's bid because it 
included a dash  as a price entry for one line item, under a 
solicitation which required bids for all items, is denied; the entry 
constitutes an unequivocal obligation on the part of the bidder to 
perform the work described in the associated line item at no cost to 
the government.

DECISION

Sverdrup Civil, Inc. protests the award of a contract to Southwest 
Engineering, Inc., under invitation for bids (IFB) No. 
DACW09-95-B-0030, issued by the Corps of Engineers, Department of the 
Army, for Phase II of the Hansen Dam Recreation Lake project.  
Sverdrup contends that Southwest's bid should have been rejected as 
nonresponsive for failure to enter a price for a required line item.

We deny the protest.

The IFB contained 28 line items with spaces next to each for prices.  
Section 00010 of the IFB provided, in relevant part, that: 

     Bids shall be submitted on all line items of the Pricing 
     Schedule, including Option Items, otherwise the bid will be 
     considered nonresponsive and rejected.

     Amounts and prices shall be indicated in either words or 
     figures, not both.

The IFB also contained the clause set forth at Federal Acquisition 
Regulation 
 sec.  52.214-18(c) which provides:  "If the solicitation requires bidding 
on all items, failure to do so will disqualify the bid."

Four bids were received, three of which were found responsive, of 
which Southwest's total bid of $9,755,000 was low and Sverdrup's bid 
of $10,726,434 was next low.  Southwest placed numerical amounts next 
to the spaces provided for prices for 27 of the 28 line items; in the 
space provided for line item 0005, "PHASE 1A STILLING BASIN," 
Southwest placed a handwritten dash.  

Sverdrup maintains that placing a dash next to line item 0005 rendered 
Southwest's bid nonresponsive because of the above-quoted solicitation 
pricing requirements.  In response, the agency points to our decision, 
Yonker, Inc., B-189869, Dec. 22, 1977, 77-2 CPD  para.  495, in which we 
held that a bidder's entry of a dash next to a line item did not 
render its bid nonresponsive under a substantially similar IFB clause 
as that set forth in this solicitation.  Specifically, the IFB in 
Yonker provided:

     Bidder must bid on no less than a complete schedule and must 
     quote on all items of the schedule(s) for which a bid is 
     submitted.  Failure to do so will disqualify the bid.

In finding that the disputed bid in Yonker was responsive, we noted 
that the restriction contained in the IFB did not require that a 
specific figure be placed next to each item nor did it preclude the 
use of an acceptable symbol, such as a dash, which unambiguously 
connotes no cost or charge.  Id. at 2.

Sverdrup argues that the Yonker decision is distinguishable from the 
facts of this case because the first line of section 00010 does 
require a specific price for each item and the second sentence 
indicates that only words or figures may be used-- circumstances not 
present in Yonker.

This distinction is without substance.  Here, the second sentence of 
section 00010 provides for the use of "figures," which we do not view 
as limited to numerical entries; rather it encompasses the entry of a 
dash, which our decisions recognize as synonymous with an entry of 
"zero dollars," or "no cost."  Keahey's Moving Co., B-224273, Nov. 24, 
1986, 86-2 CPD  para.  602 at 3.  The second sentence of section 00010 
appears to be intended simply to eliminate the possibility of 
inconsistencies between number entries expressed in both words and 
numerals. 

Since Southwest's bid indicates that it is obligated to perform the 
work required by line item 0005 at no cost to the government, and 
there is no evidence to the contrary, the bid was properly found 
responsive.  Id.

The protest is denied.

Comptroller General
of the United States