Agency's Exclusion of Proposal From Competitive Range

A company protested the agency's failure to include it in negotiations for award of a fixed-price contract and the subsequent award to another firm. The decision to exclude the protester from further negotiations was not arbitrary since it was not likely that the protester would have lowered its price sufficiently to make it reasonably competitive. There was nothing in the offer to substantiate the protester's claim that it submitted an alternate proposal. A modification of protester's proposal which was received more than 3 months after the date for receipt of proposals was properly excluded from consideration.