Link: GAO Opinion
Agency: Department of the Army
Disposition: Protest denied.
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GAO Digest:
Protest that agency evaluation and source selection decision were flawed where agency made award to higher-rated, significantly higher-priced offeror is denied where record shows that evaluation and source selection decision were reasonable and in accordance with stated evaluation criteria.
General Counsel P.C. Highlight:
ASA asserts that the agency’s decision to cancel the solicitation was unreasonable. GAO states that in a negotiated procurement, such as the one here, a contracting agency has broad discretion in deciding whether to cancel a solicitation and need only establish a reasonable basis for doing so.
Here, the agency has advanced a reasonable basis for canceling the RFP. Given the conflicting views expressed in GAO’s legal decisions and the Executive Branch directives, the threat of litigation from competing small business interests, and the availability of another procurement vehicle to meet at least some of the agency’s requirements while it decides how to procure the remaining items, GAO finds nothing improper in the agency’s decision to cancel the RFP here. The protest is denied.