[Protest of GSA Contract Award]

A firm protested the award of a contract to any other firm under a solicitation issued by the General Services Administration. The protester contended that the proposed awardee's bid bond did not meet the bond requirement in the solicitation, rendering its bid nonresponsive. GAO stated that a bid which contains a guarantee insufficient in amount is nonresponsive and ordinarily cannot be accepted; however, an exception can be made where a bond is sufficient to fulfill the purpose of the bid guarantee, which is to protect the Government in the event of a default caused by a successful bidder's failure to execute any post-award contractual documents and submit any requested performance bonds. Where the penal sum of a bid bond is equal to or greater than the difference between the defective bid and the next low acceptable bid, a bidder's failure to provide the required amount of guarantee may be waived since the bond is sufficient to offset the costs incurred by the award of the contract to the next highest bidder. Accordingly, the protest was summarily denied.