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[Protest of FHwA Contract Award for Engineering and Technical Services]

B-281836 Published: Apr 12, 1999. Publicly Released: Apr 12, 1999.
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Highlights

A firm protested a Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) contract award for engineering and technical services, contending that FHwA: (1) improperly evaluated the awardee's proposal by crediting it with the strengths of the incumbent personnel even though the employees were not identified in its proposal; (2) improperly evaluated the other personnel the awardee proposed; (3) performed an improper cost realism analysis; and (4) conducted an unreasonable cost/technical tradeoff. GAO held that FHwA: (1) properly evaluated the awardee's proposal by crediting it with the experience of the incumbent personnel, since the solicitation permitted bidders to propose employees with whom the bidder did not have a commitment; (2) reasonably evaluated the awardee's proposed employees' qualifications; (3) evaluated the proposals in accordance with the solicitation's evaluation criteria; and (4) reasonably conducted a cost/technical tradeoff in selecting the awardee's low bid. Accordingly, the protest was denied.

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