[Request for Reconsideration of Decision Sustaining Protest of Navy Contract Award]

A firm requested reconsideration of a decision which sustained a protest of a Navy contract award to it, ignoring an attempted bid modification. GAO sustained the protest because the awardee's bid failed to offer a firm fixed-price for a formally advertised procurement. The awardee argued that the decision was based on the erroneous premise that its bid modification was its only acknowledgment of the amendments and stated that its original bid acknowledged the amendments. GAO found that it had erroneously ignored the original bid; however, since the awardee indicated that it intended to revise its bid price upwards to an unknown amount, its bid was nonresponsive. GAO also found that a case the awardee cited, which held that a bid remains as submitted unless a comprehensible modification is received by bid opening, applies only to attempts to withdraw low bids after bid opening. GAO held that the Navy could not accept the original bid as valid for the period of acceptance and ignore the modification. Accordingly, the prior decision was affirmed.