Protest of Exclusion From Competitive Range

A firm protested the exclusion of its proposal from the competitive range under a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) request for proposals. The protester asserted that its exclusion was arbitrary and that it was deprived of the opportunity to enter into oral or written discussions with HHS for award consideration. Further, the protester contended that any proposer under this solicitation who, like the awardee, offered to use a certain subcontractor received preferential evaluation and award consideration due to the influence that the subcontractor has with HHS. The contracting officer determined that, although the protester's proposal could be made acceptable if most of it were revised, it would still lack a reasonable chance of being selected for the award in the face of the awardee's completely superior proposal. GAO has held that a proposal which is rated as technically acceptable may be eliminated from the competitive range if there is no reasonable chance that it will be selected for award. Therefore, GAO did not find the HHS actions unreasonable. The allegation regarding preferential evaluation treatment was without merit. Accordingly, the protest was denied.