[Protest of Navy Contract Award for Groundskeeping Services]

A firm protested a Navy contract award for grounds maintenance services, contending that the: (1) awardee's prices were unbalanced; (2) Navy improperly evaluated its and the awardee's technical proposals; and (3) technical superiority of its proposal outweighed the awardee's price advantage. GAO held that the: (1) differences between the awardee's and protester's prices were not significant, and neither bidder's prices appeared to be significantly understated or overstated; (2) Navy reasonably evaluated the protester's proposal in accordance with the solicitation's criteria; and (3) Navy reasonably made award to the lower-priced technically acceptable bid. Accordingly, the protest was denied.