[Protest of Subcontract Award by NASA Under RFQ]
Highlights
A firm protested the award of a subcontract under a request for proposals issued by a National Aeronautics and Space Administration prime contractor for office systems furniture. The protester contended that: (1) the awardee's offered prices were lower than those listed by the Federal Supply Schedule contractor for which the awardee was an authorized agent; and (2) a company accepting an order at a price below the schedule is liable to refund the difference on all other orders accepted since the effective date of the schedule contract. GAO will not review a protest of a prime contractor's selection of another subcontractor except under certain circumstances, none of which was present in this case. Further, GAO held that application of the price reduction was a matter of schedule contract administration for the General Services Administration to resolve and did not affect the validity of the order placed under the contract. Accordingly, the protest was dismissed.