B-213347: Feb 13, 1984

A firm protested a National Institutes of Health (NIH) contract award, contending that: (1) its technical proposal was significantly superior to the awardee's; (2) NIH improperly added extra points to the awardee's technical score after receipt of best and final offers; (3) by overemphasizing price, NIH did not follow the evaluation criteria stated in the solicitation; and (4) the provisions of th...

B-213347: Feb 13, 1984

WHILE TECHNICAL POINT RATINGS ARE USEFUL AS GUIDES FOR INTELLIGENT DECISIONMAKING IN THE PROCUREMENT PROCESS. SELECTION OFFICIALS ARE NOT BOUND BY THE SCORES AND WHETHER ONE PROPOSAL IS SUPERIOR TO ANOTHER DEPENDS UPON THE FACTS AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF EACH PROCUREMENT AND IS PRIMARILY A MATTER WITHIN THE DISCRETION OF THE SELECTION OFFICIAL. 2. WHERE COMPETING TECHNICAL PROPOSALS ARE ESSENTIALLY EQU...