[Protest Against Rejection of Bid Under OPM Solicitation]

A firm protested the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) rejection of its bid as technically unacceptable, contending that: (1) the evaluation was improper; (2) the solicitation assigned equal weight to the offerers' technical and price proposals, and OPM was, therefore, required to evaluate its price proposal; and (3) OPM violated the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) by proceeding with the award notwithstanding its pending protest. The protester also argued that OPM ignored the planned participation of its proposed principal subcontractor when assessing its quality assurance capability; however, GAO found that the subcontractor's participation did not bear on the issue of the protester's own quality assurance. GAO will question an agency's determination of a proposal's technical merits only when there is a clear showing that the determination was unreasonable or involved a violation of the procurement statutes or regulations. GAO noted that the protester's proposal was unacceptable as submitted, but was subject to being made acceptable through clarifications or changes to the proposal. OPM argued that: (1) the proposal's weaknesses involved the proposed organizational management procedures; (2) there was confusion regarding the protester's plan for establishing a point of contact with the agency; and (3) the protester had not sufficiently demonstrated that its staff could control the quality of work which OPM anticipated awarding to individual offerers. GAO held that: (1) the protester made no showing that the determination was unreasonable; (2) the protester was unable to oversee concurrent projects; (3) the price proposal did not need to be evaluated since the protester was found technically unacceptable; and (4) OPM complied with the CICA when it submitted a written finding that urgent and compelling circumstances affected the interests of the United States requiring that award be made nonwithstanding a pending protest. Accordingly, the protest was denied.