Technical Proposal Evaluations

A protester to contract awards contended that, on one solicitation, it had proposed a qualified individual and offered a lower price, and on another solicitation, evaluation criteria were not equally applied and the awardee's price was too low to perform work successfully. There was no objection to the agency action in downgrading the protester's proposal and excluding the offeror from the competitive range since the proposal was deficient in information regarding Personnel qualifications. A review of the technical evaluation showed that the award was not unreasonable or arbitrary and was not questioned. Where competing proposals are essentially equal, cost may become the determinative factor, and award may not be withheld merely because the low offer may be below cost.