Protest against Rejection of Technical Proposal

A company protested the agency determination that its proposal, submitted in response to the first step of a two-step procurement, was technically unacceptable and contended that the solicitation was defective and rejection of its proposal improper. The protest concerning alleged improprieties in the solicitation which were apparent prior to the closing date was untimely since it was filed after the receipt of proposals. Rejection of the proposal which simply indicated intentions to subcontract for a component when the solicitation required submission of the proposed technical approach was proper, and a step-one evaluation of capacity and credit was improper but did not prejudice the offeror who failed to submit an acceptable proposal.