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B-175633 1 (1972-10-25)

handle is hein.gao/gaobablcz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGTON. D.C. 20W8 B-175633 Ci OCT 25i2 Dear Senator Williams: Your letter of March 28, 1972, referred to us a letter from the Electrospace Cprporation, Long Island, New York, ] concerning the Army's method of retrofitting-AN/PRC-77 radio 22 sets and of procuring additional sets. We advised you by letter dated May 17, 1972, that the procurement of additional sets had become the subject of a formal bid protest filed 4 /? .-with our Office by Electrospace and that this aspect of your request would be dealt with in our decision on the protest. A copy of this decision will be provided to you when it is issued. With respect to retrofitting, Electrospace questioned whether the Army is wasting the taxpayers' money by doing the rework itself. Electrospace asserted that, because it made the radios, it was in a better position to perform the work required to correct the deficiencies involved. BACKGROUND The AN/PRC-77s are portable, short-range radios. The 11,264 radios to be reworked were initial shipments made by Electrospace on an advertised, multiyear contract which calls for about 56,000 radios. Radios produced subsequent to the 11,264 have been corrected in the manufacturing process. A problem with Electrospace-produced radios surfaced in early 1971 during testing by the Army Test and Evaluation Command at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The Army concluded that this problem was traceable to inaccuracies in the radios' frequency synthesizer system. Electrospace claimed that the deficiencies were attributable to the design of the radios; this contention was countered somewhat by Army claims of poor workmanship and quality. Six engineering changes were developed which the Army believed would correct the deficiencies in the radios. The Army Electronics Command (ECOM) had not initially planned to obtain a cost estimate from Electrospace for necessary rework ~~~7C o70 5