[Protest of Air Force Contract Award for Clinical Social Services]

Two firms protested an Air Force contract award for clinical social services, contending that the Air Force: (1) misevaluated the awardee's past performance as warranting a low-risk performance rating; (2) improperly determined that the awardee's proposed price was realistic; and (3) improperly made award on the basis of low price instead of on a best-value basis. GAO held that the: (1) Air Force reasonably evaluated the awardee's proposal as posing a low performance risk; (2) Air Force reasonably evaluated the awardee's past performance in accordance with the stated evaluation factors; (3) Air Force did not relax the solicitation's compensation requirements and did not conduct misleading discussions with the protesters; and (4) protesters were not sufficiently interested to protest the award, since they would not be in line for award even if their protests were sustained. Accordingly, the protests were denied.