[Protest of Navy Contract Award for Product Assurance Services]
Highlights
A firm protested a Navy contract award for product assurance services, contending that there were no significant technical variations between its proposal and the awardee's higher-cost proposal to justify the award. GAO held that: (1) it would not question the Navy's technical proposal evaluations, since the protester did not show that they were unreasonable; (2) the protester did not sufficiently assure the Navy that it had committed its proposed personnel to the contract; (3) the Navy informed the protester of all the significant deficiencies in its proposal; (4) the Navy was not obligated to reopen negotiations so that the protester could remedy defects in its best and final offer; and (5) the cost/technical tradeoff was consistent with the evaluation criteria. Accordingly, the protest was denied.