[Protest of DOE Contractor's Subcontract Award for Wastewater Treatment Course]

A firm protested a subcontract award for a wastewater treatment course under a Department of Energy prime contractor's solicitation, contending that: (1) the contractor improperly evaluated the proposals; (2) the course price should have included the cost of textbooks; (3) the accuracy of the awardee's proposal in its representation of the firm's experience and abilities was questionable; (4) the awardee did not include the optional pricing for additional sessions in its offer; and (5) the contractor ordered the texts and training materials before it awarded the contract. GAO held that: (1) the contractor properly evaluated the offers on the basis of the success rates stated in the proposals; (2) the allegation regarding the inclusion of the textbook price in the cost evaluation was untimely filed after bid opening; (3) the protester failed to show that the contractor improperly evaluated its proposal; (4) the protester failed to show that the awardee did not meet the solicitation requirements; and (5) it would not conduct investigations to establish the validity of a protester's assertions. Accordingly, the protest was denied in part and dismissed in part.