Claim for Bid Preparation Costs

Two businesses engaged in a joint venture claimed bid preparation costs for their bid submitted in response to an invitation for bids (IFB) for utilities improvements at a naval submarine base. Mere negligence by the procuring activity is not generally sufficient to support a claim for bid preparation costs. The award to a large business, even though a small business set-aside provision was inadvertently included in the IFB of the protester, was not an arbitrary or capricious action to justify a claim for bid preparation costs, since the evidence indicates no intent by the agency to restrict procurement to small business, and no set-aside provision was included in the awardee's bid.