[Protest of Navy Rejection of Bid for Flap Actuator Repair]

A firm protested the Navy's rejection of its bid for aircraft flap actuator repairs, contending that the Navy improperly excluded its bid from the competitive range based on a faulty analysis of the awardee's costs. GAO held that the: (1) awardee, a Navy facility, had an inadequate cost accounting system for pricing contracts; (2) Navy did not conduct an adequate cost-realism analysis; (3) Navy improperly excluded the protester's bid based on the disparity between its and the awardee's bids; and (4) protester timely filed its protest after learning of the reason for its bid's exclusion from the competitive range. Accordingly, the protest was sustained, and GAO recommended that the Navy: (1) reevaluate the bids after performing a cost-realism analysis of the awardee's bid; and (2) reimburse the protester for its protest costs.