Protest That Agency Failed To Follow Stated Evaluation Criteria by Downgrading Proposal For Nonexistent Weaknesses

A company protested the award of a contract on two grounds: (1) that the contractor neither followed nor fairly applied the stated evaluation criteria in its evaluation of the protester's proposal; and (2) that the contractor failed to advise the protester of several perceived weaknesses in its proposal. The contractor admitted that the procurement had a "number of shortcomings," and GAO concurred with this fact. Scoring a proposal under inappropriate criteria may prejudice the protester; however, the selection of an offeror for an award is not bound by point scores, findings, and recommendations. Furthermore, the record showed that the admitted errors in evaluation were not such that, if corrected, they would have gained the award for the protester. The agency's failure to advise the protester of deficiencies did not prejudice the protester. The protest was denied.