[Protest of Navy Contract Award for Radioactive Waste Disposal]

A firm protested a Navy contract award for radioactive waste disposal, contending that the Navy: (1) improperly evaluated the awardee's technical proposal; (2) improperly evaluated its past performance; and (3) failed to reconcile the pricing assumptions on which bidders based their pricing. GAO held that the Navy: (1) improperly determined that the awardee's proposal met the solicitation's minimum technical requirements, since the proposal contained ambiguities; (2) improperly evaluated the protester's past performance, since it ignored relevant information that was personally known to one of its evaluators; (3) failed to comply with the solicitation's past performance evaluation criteria; and (4) properly reconciled the pricing assumptions on which bidders based their pricing. Accordingly, the protest was sustained, and GAO recommended that the Navy: (1) reopen discussions, amend the solicitation if necessary, and perform a proper proposal evaluation and source selection decision; (2) terminate the awardee's contract and make award to the protester, if otherwise appropriate; and (3) reimburse the protester for its protest costs.