Agency Not Required to Use Discussions to Address Price Evaluation Scheme; GAO B-414624, PAE Applied Technologies LLC

Protest challenging agency’s failure to conduct a price realism assessment or evaluation the technical risk posed by each offeror’s pricing is dismissed, where the solicitation did not provide for such an assessment and therefore the agency was neither required nor permitted to conduct one; and protest challenging agency’s analysis of unbalanced pricing is dismissed, where the protester did not allege the awardee’s pricing was unbalanced or overstated, and therefore did not demonstrate any prejudice from the agency’s actions; protest challenging the agency’s methodology for calculating offerors’ total evaluated prices is dismissed as untimely, where the evaluation scheme was disclosed in the solicitation and should have been challenged prior to the submission of proposals; and protest challenging the agency’s discussions is denied, where the agency’s evaluation scheme was not a deficiency or significant weakness that was required to be addressed by the agency during discussions.