Protest Regarding Interpretation of Bid Phrase

The protester objected to the contracting officer's interpretation of its insertion of "deduct $14,380 from total price" into the space provided in the bid document for prices on each of two contract line items if the Government were to waive first article testing. The inserted phrase rendered the bid ambiguous, and the bidder was properly not allowed to explain the meaning of the bid after bid opening. The contracting officer's decision that the price reduction applied to the bid for both contract line items rather than to each of the items as claimed by the protester, which resulted in no award to the protester, was reasonable.