Protest Regarding Evaluation of Bids

A company protested the award of a contract, alleging that the solicitation required that bids be evaluated based on the total work as reduced by all of the alternates. Where the solicitation provided for the insertion of a bid price for the entire work and for insertion of bid prices for deductive items and stated that the evaluation of bids would be made on the bases of basic bid and all alternates, it was proper to evaluate the basic bid without the deductive items since the award was made for the entire work. However, the evaluation provision should be clarified for future procurements. Since the Federal Procurement Regulations impose no duty on the contracting officer to record the amount of funds available prior to bid opening when the amount of funding is in doubt, the determination of which alternates, if any, will be applied may properly be made after bid opening.