Rejection of Bid as Nonresponsive in Two-Step Procurement

A company protested rejection of its bid in the second step of a two-step, formally advertised procurement for failure to submit a bid bond with the bid. Only bidders whose first step technical proposals are accepted by the Government are eligible to compete in the second step of a two-step procurement and, since the protester did not submit a bid bond as required in step one, its bid was properly rejected as nonresponsive. A protest alleging that receipt of only one responsive bid in step two did not constitute adequate competition was denied because three acceptable proposals were received.