FI Consulting, Inc. (B-423274)

You should not care.

Category: Multiple Award Schedule, formatting, compliance

Date: 11 April 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423274

FI Consulting, Inc., protested USDA’s exclusion of its quote from further consideration under RFQ No. 12SAD225Q0001, which sought program support services via a small business set-aside BPA using GSA Schedules. FIC argued that the solicitation’s formatting instructions were latently ambiguous and that USDA should have waived the inclusion of a logo containing text on its cover page as a minor informality. GAO denied the first claim and dismissed the second.

RFQ’s formatting rules were clear: The solicitation explicitly prohibited images containing text, a requirement reiterated during the Q&A process. Despite this, FIC included its logo—a text-containing image—on all cover pages of its four-volume quote. GAO found this to be a noncompliant deviation and agreed with USDA that such failures to follow detailed instructions reflected on the vendor’s ability to perform work requiring strict compliance.

Waiver of minor informality not required under FSS: GAO also rejected FIC’s fallback argument that USDA should have waived the logo issue as a minor informality under FAR 14.405. Because the procurement was under FAR Subpart 8.4 (FSS procedures), that waiver provision did not apply, and even if it had, agencies are not required to grant such waivers.

Decision: The protest was denied in part and dismissed in part. GAO reinforced that under FSS procedures, solicitations may impose strict compliance rules, and agencies may reasonably exclude vendors who do not follow clear formatting instructions—especially where attention to detail is itself a rated capability.

Digest

1. Protest alleging that the solicitation contained a latent ambiguity is denied where the protester’s interpretation of the relevant solicitation language is not reasonable.
2. Protest alleging that the agency should have waived the protester’s quotation error as a minor informality is dismissed where the agency was not required to waive minor informalities under Federal Acquisition Regulation subpart 8.4.