A firm protested the Navy's rejection of its bid and subsequent contract award to another firm for garage construction, contending that regulations did not prohibit it from using a federal employee as a surety. GAO held that the: (1) Navy improperly rejected the protester's bid, since the protester's use of a federal employee as one of its sureties did not prevent the Navy from satisfactorily obta...

PROCUREMENT - Sealed Bidding - Bid guarantees - Sureties - Acceptability PROCUREMENT - Sealed Bidding - Bids - Responsiveness - Determination criteria DIGEST: Agency determination to reject bid as nonresponsive merely because one of bidder's sureties is a government employee is improper since this would not prevent the contracting officer from satisfactorily obtaining performance on a defaulted co...