Allegation That Technical Evaluation Was Unreasonable

A firm protested the award of a contract for the design, supply, fabrication, installation, and testing of a multitrack audio recording system for the United States Army. The proposals were evaluated by the technical evaluation team and assigned points based on the price/quality ratios (PQR). On the basis of the PQR, a competitor's proposal was considered to be the sole proposal within the competitive range and the selection team recommended that the competitor's offer be accepted without discussions, as it was technically acceptable, achieved the lowest PQR, and was priced lower than the Government estimate. The protester alleged that the contracting agency did not conduct negotiations with the protesting firm even though it should have been included in the competitive range. Furthermore, the protester contended that had the contracting agency awarded on the basis of the evaluation criteria set forth, the protesting firm would have been awarded the contract because it would have had the best PQR. The protester alleged also that the criticisms of its proposal were unfounded. The fact that a protester disagrees with an agency's evaluation does not in itself establish that the evaluation is without a reasonable basis. The protester's proposal was properly excluded from the competitive range. The protest was denied.