[Protest of NPS Contract Award for Study]
Highlights
A firm protested a National Park Service (NPS) contract award for a morphology and sediment study, contending that NPS: (1) unreasonably determined that the awardee's higher bid was more advantageous; (2) did not conduct adequate discussions; (3) misevaluated its bid; and (4) insufficiently defined its requirements. GAO held that: (1) the protester untimely filed its protest regarding the allegedly defective work statement; and (2) although NPS did not question the reasonableness of the protester's bid, it unreasonably downgraded the protester's technical proposal based on the significantly lower price. Accordingly, the protest was sustained, and GAO recommended that NPS reimburse the protester for its bid and protest preparation costs.