Protest Alleging Contract Award Had No Rational Basis

GAO was requested to review the award of a contract by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania under a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The protester alleged that the award had no rational basis, and that the award selection process used by the grantee violated both Federal and State law. The protester also contended that the award should be made to it, as the lowest responsible offeror. The protester complained that the grantee improperly downgraded its technical proposal. Finally, the protester complained that the request for proposals (RFP) listed the evaluation criteria but did not disclose the relative weights of each factor. GAO held that the protester's complaint, that its proposal was more advantageous, was not supported in the record which demonstrated that the proposal was technically unacceptable because it was based on assumptions not permitted in the RFP. The grantee is not required by the Federal "norm" to conduct discussions with offerors, particularly where a proposal has major technical deficiencies. In regard to the RFP relative weights of each factor, GAO was not disposed to sustain the complaint on this basis. First, the protester did not complain about the RFP defect prior to the date for submitting proposals. Secondly, GAO did not believe the protester was in any way prejudiced. Accordingly, the complaint was denied.