TITLE:  Delta Timber Company, B-290710, September 6, 2002
BNUMBER:  B-290710
DATE:  September 6, 2002
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Delta Timber Company, B-290710, September 6, 2002

   Decision
    
    
Matter of:   Delta Timber Company
    
File:            B-290710
    
Date:              September 6, 2002
    
Ruth G. Tiger, Esq., Saltman & Stevens, for the protester.
Lori Polin Jones, Esq., Department of Agriculture, for the agency.
John L. Formica, Esq., and James A. Spangenberg, Esq., Office of the
General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
DIGEST
    
Agency properly accepted a bid submitted in response to a solicitation for
the sale of timber where the bid prices, although changed and not
initialed by the bidder prior to bid opening, were legible and the bid was
thus not ambiguous.
DECISION
    
Delta Timber Company protests the proposed award of a contract to Thompson
Logging by the Department of Agriculture for the Middle Mountain Timber
Sale.[1]  Delta contends that Thompson's bid was ambiguous with regard to
price and should have been rejected by the agency.
    
We deny the protest.
    
The prospectus for the sale called for the submission of sealed bids to
purchase
two species of timber listed as 4,015 hundred cubic feet (ccf) of *Live
and Dead Aspen & Other* and 35 ccf of *Live and Dead True Fir.*  Agency
Report (AR), Tab A, Timber Sale Prospectus.  To complete their bids,
bidders were required to enter a *bid rate* for each of the two species of
timber.  Award was to be made to the highest-priced, responsible bidder
who submitted a responsive bid.
    
The agency received four bids by the bid opening date of June 4, 2002,
including those submitted by Thompson and Delta.  The record reflects that
the agency recorded Thompson's bid as the high bid at $8.01 and $7.01 for
the two species of timber set forth in the prospectus, for a total bid of
$32,405.50.  Delta's bid was recorded as being next-high at prices of
$8.01 and $6.75 for a total bid of $32,396.40.  AR, Tab B, Sale Officer's
Memorandum to the Contracting Officer (June 4, 2002). 
    
Because Thompson's bid was handwritten, and the prices had been changed
without the changes having been initialed, the contracting officer
contacted Thompson to verify its bid.  Contracting Officer's Statement at
1.  Thompson confirmed its bid,
and this protest followed.
    
The protester, which had not seen Thompson's original bid (rather than a
copy) before submitting its protest and its comments on the agency report,
argues that Thompson's hand-written bid is illegible and that Thompson's
bid price is thus ambiguous.  The protester contends that because of this,
Thompson's bid must be rejected.  See New Shawmut Timber Co., B-286881,
Feb. 26, 2001, 2001 CPD P: 42 at 3 (bid submitted in response to a timber
sale must be rejected where it was at best ambiguous as to an intended
price).
    
Our Office requested and received Thompson's original bid.  Based upon our
examination of the bid, we find no question that the bid was legible with
regard to the price.  That is, we, like the agency at bid opening, had no
difficulty in concluding, with certainty, that Thompson's handwritten bid
prices were $8.01 and $7.01 for the two species of timber listed in the
prospectus.[2]  Additionally, while the bid evidences that Thompson at
some point changed its prices to $8.01 and $7.01 without initialing the
changes, our Office has consistently held that a bidder's failure to
initial changes is a matter of form that may be waived by the agency as a
minor informality, where, as here, there is no doubt as to intended bid. 
Stone Forest Indus., Inc., B-246123, Feb. 7, 1992, 92-1 CPD P: 161 at 1-2;
Jordan Contracting Co.; Griffin Constr. Co., Inc., B-186836, Sept. 16,
1976, 76‑2 CPD P: 250 at 2. 
    
The protest is denied.
    
Anthony H. Gamboa
General Counsel
    

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   [1] We consider this protest under 4 C.F.R. S: 21.13(a) (2002) because the
Forest Service has agreed to have protests of timber sales decided by our
Office.  Big Valley Lumber Co., B-221181, B-221182, Apr. 2, 1986, 86-1 CPD
P: 313 at 2 n.1.
[2] We showed the original bid document to the protester's (and the
agency's) counsel and advised the parties, in the course of *outcome
prediction* alternative dispute resolution, of our conclusion.  The
protester, however, declined to withdraw its protest.