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Unequal Price Discussions Sink Award

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 02.06.06

In Sytronics, Inc. (Dec. 29, 2005, http://www.gao.gov/decisions/bidpro/297346.pdf), GAO held that a discussion question to the awardee labeling the proposed price as “excessive” sent a stronger message than one to the protester labeling its proposed price as “high.” Prejudice occurred because, for its final proposal revision, the awardee reduced its already-lower proposed price by a greater percentage than the protester, which allowed it to prevail in a cost-technical tradeoff despite the protester's superior technical proposal.

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Client Alert | 4 min read | 10.30.26

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right: GAO Sustains Protest Where Agency Tried to Fix PIA Violation with a Second PIA Violation

Recent sustain decisions by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Fluor Federal Solutions, LLC and Reliance Test & Technology send a clear message: when an agency tries to fix a Procurement Integrity Act (PIA) violation by committing a second one, the cure can be just as fatal as the disease. The cases involved the U.S. Air Force’s $1.8 billion procurement for O&M services at Elgin Air Force Base. During discussions, the Air Force inadvertently released a pricing overview slide with all offerors’ bottom-line evaluated costs to Reliance Test & Technology, which immediately notified the agency of the error. In response, the Air Force decided to level the playing field by providing the same information to all the other offerors in the procurement, stating, “[o]fferors may consider this disclosure in their [final proposal revision].”...