[Protest of Proposed USDA Contract Award]

A firm protested the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) proposed contract award for channel construction. The protester contended that USDA improperly permitted the awardee to correct its bid. The contracting officer noticed that the awardee's listed price was unreasonably high and permitted the awardee to use its worksheets to correct the error. The protester argued that, since correction would displace it as low bidder, the error was required to be evident on the face of the bid. Since the mistake could be detected only by use of the worksheets, the protester contended that USDA improperly permitted the correction to be made. GAO held that accepting the awardee's grossly out-of-line price would have been unreasonable and that USDA properly requested that a correction be made before it would be accepted. Because the awardee's actual price had been the low bid, and it remained low after correction, the protester was not displaced. Accordingly, the protest was denied.