Contract Terminated Following Protest Against Award

A protester contended that a competing firm's bid was unbalanced. Subsequently the agency decided to terminate its contract with this firm, and the contractor protested this decision. Since the decision to terminate the contract arose out of the protest against the award, review of the award by GAO was justified. Acceptance of the mathematically unbalanced bid was improper since solicitation estimates of work did not accurately represent anticipated needs as demonstrated by the following: the unsuccessful bidder showed that quantity estimates for at least 17 of 50 solicitation items were inaccurate; the agency did not show that contested quantity estimates were accurate; and the agency reported that estimates for four additional items were in error.