[Request for Reconsideration of Sustained Protest and Claim for Proposal Preparation Costs]

The Department of Education requested reconsideration of a GAO decision which sustained a protest of a contract award for the development and dissemination of materials on bilingual vocational training programs. The protester also requested proposal preparation costs. Education requested reconsideration of the merits of the original decision, maintaining that the GAO assessment of the technical proposal evaluation and its interpretation of the relative weight of evaluation criteria were inaccurate. As support for its original evaluation of the proposals, Education submitted a more detailed assessment and analysis of the relevant documentation in favor of the awardee's technical superiority. GAO found that this submission did not meet the bid protest procedure requirement that a request for reconsideration contain a detailed statement which specifies errors of law or information not previously considered because of GAO oversight, and GAO will not consider any new evidence which was available at the time of the original decision. GAO felt that Education's assertion that the GAO interpretation of the relative weight of evaluation criteria was inaccurate because an error in its request for proposals illustrated the unfairness of the procurement. Accordingly, Education's request for reconsideration was denied. In sustaining the original protest, GAO did not recommend corrective action be taken since the awardee had already performed a substantial portion of the work and the agency had incurred significant costs. Since it could not be concluded that, if the Government had acted properly, the claimant would have had a substantial chance of receiving award, there was no legal basis to reimburse the claimant for its proposal preparation expenses. Accordingly, the request for proposal preparation costs was denied.