TITLE:  	Ellicott Engineering, Inc., B-282382, June 23, 1999
BNUMBER:  B-282382
DATE:  June 23, 1999
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Ellicott Engineering, Inc., B-282382, June 23, 1999

Decision

Matter of: Ellicott Engineering, Inc.

File: B-282382

Date: June 23, 1999

Harry R. Silver, Esq., Ober, Kaler, Grimes & Shriver, for the protester.

Willie J. Williams, Esq., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, for the agency.

James Spangenberg, Esq., and Willie Commons III, Office of the General
Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.

DIGEST

Agency properly determined bid containing statements modifying material
specification requirements was nonresponsive.

DECISION

Ellicott Engineering, Inc. protests the rejection of its bid as
nonresponsive under invitation for bids (IFB) No. DACW69-99-B-0003, issued
by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntington, West Virginia, for the
fabrication, assembly, and delivery of two lengths of leaf chain for dam
gate hoists.

We deny the protest.

The IFB required the work to conform to Contract Drawing 023-L1-54/8A, which
specified the type of material to be used as "Forged Steel: ASTM A668-93,
Class K" for items 17, 19 and 24 of the chain. IFB sect. H-1.1., at H-1. The IFB
also stated:

Flame cutting of material shall be subject to approval, and where proposed,
shall be indicated on the shop drawings submitted to the Contracting
Officer.

IFB sect. C-6, at C-2. The IFB also provides for contracting officer approval of
the use of any equipment or material used, including a requirement that the
contractor submit evidence satisfactory to the contracting officer that such
material conforms to the specification requirements. IFB sect. C-5, at C-2.

Ellicott submitted the low bid of $158,500. In a cover letter attached to
its bid, Ellicott stated:

Enclosed is Ellicott Engineering's quotation for the above referenced
Solicitation. Please note the following considerations taken in our bid:

1. All Links will be flame cut from 1 1/16" (ASTM A514) material with
allowance to machine finish the bores only.

2. Items 13 and 14 (rings) will be flame cut from 1 1/16" (ASTM A514)
material with allowance to finish bores only.

3. Items 17, 19 and 24 will be made from 4140/4142 tubing in lieu of ASTM
A668.

Agency Report, Tab E. The agency found that the foregoing conditions
attached to Ellicott's bid rendered it nonresponsive because 4140/4142
tubing did not satisfy the ASTM A668 requirements and the proposed flame
cutting was unapproved and unacceptable. Contracting Officer's Statement at
6th-14th unnumbered pages; Agency Report, Tabs F, G, H, and L. After
rejecting Ellicott's bid, award was made to the next low bidder, E.S.G.
Company, Inc. in the amount of $179,844. This protest followed.

Ellicott maintains that the agency improperly determined its bid was
nonresponsive because the IFB essentially contained a performance
specification and the agency made no determination that the alternates
offered by Ellicott could not meet the performance specifications. In this
regard, Ellicott maintains that 4140/4142 tubing is superior in quality to
ASTM A668. Moreover, Ellicott argues that the IFB contemplated deviations
from the specification requirements. Protest at 1-2; Protester's Comments at
2.

A bid must be responsive to be considered for award, which means that the
bid submitted must offer to perform, without exception, the exact thing
called for in the IFB, and, upon acceptance, will bind the contractor to
perform in accordance with all material terms and conditions of the IFB.
Southwest Marine, Inc., B-247639, May 12, 1992, 92-1 CPD para. 442 at 3. If in
its bid a bidder attempts to impose conditions that would modify material
requirements of the invitation, limit its liability to the government, or
limit rights of the government under any contract clause, then the bid must
be rejected. Bishop Contractors, Inc., B-246526, Dec. 17, 1991, 91-2 CPD para.
555 at 2.

Here, the effect of the conditions attached to Ellicott's bid was that the
bid was premised on modifying material requirements of the IFB. In this
regard, it is not disputed that the requirements for a particular grade of
forged steel and for approval of flame cutting are material, since they
relate to the quality of the project. While the protester notes that the IFB
provided for acceptance of alternate material or flame cutting, the cited
provisions pertain to contract performance by the successful contractor and
cannot be relied upon by bidders to condition their bids, as Ellicott
appeared to do here, on receiving approval of material other than that
required by the IFB. See Pavel Enters., Inc., B-249332, Nov. 9, 1992, 92-2
CPD para. 330 at 4-5. Even if we assume, for the purpose of the argument, that
the solicitation was not clear about the permissibility of submitting a bid
based on flame cutting, we view the protester's substitution of 4140/4142
tubing for the ASTM A668 forged steel required by the IFB to be so clearly
material that it, standing alone, rendered the bid nonresponsive.

With regard to Ellicott's argument that its substituted material would
satisfy the performance requirements of the specification, the cited
provisions put the burden on the contractor (not the government) to provide
sufficient evidence that the proposed substituted material was acceptable.
The information submitted with Ellicott's bid provided no support for its
contention that the conditions attached to its bid were consistent with the
specification requirements and the agency's needs, so there is no basis to
find Ellicott's bid responsive. [1]

The protest is denied.

Comptroller General

of the United States

Notes

1. The responsiveness of a bid must be ascertained from the bid documents
themselves, not from clarifications provided by the bidder after bid
opening; to permit explanations after bid opening would be tantamount to
granting an opportunity to submit a new bid that could be responsive or
nonresponsive at the bidder's option based on information available to the
bidder after bid opening. Orbit Advanced Techs. Ltd., B-224603.2, Mar. 11,
1987, 87-1 CPD para. 273 at 3.