Price Realism Concerns Never Communicated to Technical Evaluators or SSA, and Not Resolved During Discussions; GAO B-414337, Next Tier Concepts Inc.; MAXIMUS Federal Services Inc.

Protest challenging agency’s price realism evaluation is sustained, where the agency’s price evaluators expressed concern that the awardee’s low pricing demonstrated an insufficient understanding of the technical requirements, but these concerns were not communicated to the technical evaluators or source selection authorities, nor raised during discussions; and protest challenging the agency’s past performance evaluation is denied, where the protester cannot object to the agency’s reliance on a negative CPAR in developing its past performance rating, when the protester did not object to the content of the report when given the opportunity.