Request for Reconsideration Alleging Ambiguous Awardee Bid

A firm requested reconsideration of a decision in which it protested that the bid submitted by the awardee in response to an invitation for bids (IFB) issued by the Defense Personnel Support Center was ambiguous. The awardee's original bid on the requirement for supplying camouflage combat coats offered one price, but it later submitted a timely modification. The protester argued that: (1) the awardee's telegram was not clear as to whether the original price should be reduced to or by the stated amounts; (2) the prior decision was erroneous because it did not mention the fact that the abstract of bids was marked in such a way as to show that someone within the contracting agency had interpreted the awardee's bid to mean that the unit prices were to be reduced to the stated amounts; and (3) the decision was wrong in concluding that the bid was susceptible to only one reasonable interpretation. GAO held that evidence contained in the abstract of bids showing that someone in the contracting agency interpreted the bid in a different manner is outweighed by the plain language of the modification and the original bid. The remainder of the request for reconsideration was a restatement of arguments made in the original protest and not evidence of any factual or legal errors in the prior decision. Accordingly, the prior decision was affirmed.