TNT Industrial Contractors, Inc.

A firm protested an Army Corps of Engineers contract award for water treatment plant construction, contending that the Corps failed to evaluate all the line items listed in the solicitation's pricing schedule, and that it submitted the lowest aggregate bid, and therefore should have received the award. GAO held that since the evaluation of bids must be based on the actual likely cost to the government of the project, the Corps properly did not consider "deductive items" as part of the total price because funds were available for the entire project. However, the protest was denied since any confusion was apparent on the face of the solicitation, and therefore had to be protested before bid opening.