Price Realism Requirement Must Be Stated to Allow Unacceptability Finding

In W.P. Tax & Accounting Group (Nov. 13, 2015), GAO reminded agencies that, in fixed-price procurements, below-cost pricing is not inherently improper and cannot serve as the basis for a technical unacceptability finding when the solicitation does not provide for a price realism evaluation. Because the solicitation in W.P. said nothing about a price realism evaluation, GAO overturned the agency's rejection of the low-priced vendor's quotation as technically unacceptable and recommended that the agency either reevaluate the vendor's quotation against the stated evaluation criteria or amend the solicitation to provide for a price realism evaluation.