[Protest of Pending VA Contract Award]

A firm protested a pending contract award under a Veterans' Administration (VA) invitation for bids (IFB) for steam distribution lines and pumps. The IFB required contractors to submit bids on five alternate items. The first item was for general construction, mechanical, electrical, and other work, and each of the four remaining items incorporated the work described in the immediately preceding item, with certain deletions. The IFB informed that a single award would be made on the first item but, if the lowest responsible bid exceeded available funds, a single award would be made on the remaining items in a specified priority. In addition to requiring a total price for each item, the bid forms provided space to enter amounts for materials, services, and other obligations for each bid item. Only the total price bid for each item was evaluated for award. The material and services entries were not considered; VA characterized these entries as information for the convenience of the contracting officer. The contracting officer did request verification of the awardee's bid, because its service costs were lower than those of other bidders. The awardee stated that its total bid for each item was correct. The protester also argued that the amount shown by the awardee for services and other obligations on each item was so low that it was obviously erroneous. VA contended that the awardee's bid did not contain a mistake. GAO held that a bidder's allocation of its bid price between materials and services and other obligations which is not proportionately equal to those of the other two bidders, may cause the contracting officer to suspect a mistake in the bid and to request verification from the bidder. However, it is not such an obvious mistake that the contracting officer, upon receipt of verification, could not properly accept the bid. Accordingly, the protest was denied.