[Protest of Contract Award Under Justice RFP]

A firm protested a Bureau of Prisons contract award for prison camp health services. The protester challenged the technical review panel's determination that the awardee's bid was technically superior and contended that the Bureau failed to hold discussions concerning the deficiencies of its proposal. GAO will not question an agency's proposal evaluation unless it is shown to be unreasonable. Furthermore, in a negotiated procurement, there is no requirement that award be made on the basis of lowest cost. Based on the qualitative differences between the two proposals, GAO could not conclude that the award was unreasonable. In addition, evaluating officials are not required to discuss aspects of proposals which they find less desirable after best and final offers. Although the protester questioned the scoring of best and final offers, it is the contracting officer's responsibility to determine what significance should be attached to the scores tallied by the technical review panel. Finally, the protester complained that the Bureau improperly revised certain evaluation criteria after issuing the request for proposals (RFP). Protests based on alleged improprieties in an RFP must be filed prior to the closing date for receipt of proposals. Since this protest was filed after that date, this aspect of the protest was untimely and not for consideration. Accordingly, the protest was denied in part and dismissed in part.