[Protest of Army Corps of Engineers Contract Award for Nonprofessional Services for Socioeconomic Studies]

A firm protested an Army contract award for nonprofessional services for socioeconomic studies, contending that the Army improperly made award to the low bidder without considering the technical evaluation scores. GAO held that the Army improperly awarded the contract, since the solicitation indicated that it would base award on a cost-technical tradeoff, rather than to the low, technically acceptable bidder. Accordingly, the protest was sustained, and GAO recommended that the Army: (1) either terminate the contract and make award to the protester or request another round of best and final offers and terminate the contract if the protester submitted the lowest technically acceptable offer; and (2) reimburse the protester for its protest costs.