A firm protested an Air Force contract award for relay node sites, contending that the Air Force improperly: (1) failed to evaluate its best and final offer consistently with the stated evaluation criteria; and (2) downgraded its best and final offer for reductions in its labor costs. GAO held that the Air Force properly rejected the protester's bid as unacceptable, since the protester made signif...

PROCUREMENT - Competitive Negotiation - Best-final offers - Technical acceptability - Negative determination - Propriety DIGEST: Protester's proposal was properly rejected as unacceptable where agency reasonably determined that the firm took exception in its best and final offer (BAFO) to solicitation requirement for technical studies and correspondingly made significant manhour reductions for thi...