Complaint Against Proposed Award of Contract

A firm protested the award of a contract pursuant to an Agency for International Development (AID) grant, which was awarded prior to the resolution of the complaint. The complainant contended that: (1) the grantee made the award to a foreign and, therefore, ineligible firm; (2) portions of its offer were misplaced and, consequently, were not reviewed by AID; (3) the contract was not awarded on the basis of price; and (4) AID failed to prevent the grantee's contract award prior to the resolution of the complaint. GAO found that the awardee firm was organized under laws of the United States; therefore, the fact of foreign ownership did not, under the solicitation, preclude the firm's eligibility. GAO found no merit to the complaint that portions of the complainant's offer were misplaced, and the complainant supplied no evidence to establish evaluation deficiencies. GAO has held that, in a negotiated procurement, awards are not required to be made solely on the basis of price, and an agency's failure to award to the lowest priced offeror is not a basis for objection. GAO consistently holds that an agency's failure to prevent a grantee's contract award prior to resolution of a complaint does not affect the validity of the contract award. Accordingly, the complaint was denied in part and dismissed in part.