Smokeys Helping Hand, LLC (B-422957; B-422957.2; B-422957.3)

Category: Pricing compliance

Date: December 3, 2024

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-422957%2Cb-422957.2%2Cb-422957.3

You should not care.

Smokeys Helping Hand, LLC (SHH), protested the award of a purchase order to RGZ Forestry, LLC, by the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for vegetation control services. SHH alleged the agency improperly rejected its quotation for proposing an alternative payment schedule and that DOI conducted unequal discussions by addressing another vendor’s pricing concerns without providing SHH an opportunity to clarify its terms. GAO denied the protest.

BLM evaluated SHH’s quotation as noncompliant, because it proposed incremental payment terms contrary to the solicitation's fixed-price and single-payment structure, which mandated payment only after full contract completion. While SHH argued this was merely a suggestion, GAO found ambiguity in its submission that justified rejection. GAO also found no evidence of unequal treatment, as DOI’s communication with another vendor involved a clarification, not a discussion allowing revision of terms.

Digest

1. Protest that the agency unreasonably rejected protester’s quotation for failing to demonstrate compliance with the solicitation’s terms and conditions is denied where the record shows that the protester quoted an alternate payment schedule.
2. Protest that the agency unequally conducted discussions is denied where the record shows that the agency did not conduct discussions with any vendor.