The Bid Protest Debrief
In Innovative Management & Technology Approaches, Inc., B-423190, et al., Mar. 3, 2025, IMTAS protested its exclusion from a competition run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after the agency rejected its proposal based on a $0.01 discrepancy in one labor rate listed on its pricing template. The error—a clear scrivener’s mistake—did not impact the actual quoted labor rate or total evaluated price. IMTAS argued that the agency should have either ignored or clarified the harmless typo. GAO agreed the exclusion was unreasonable—but ultimately denied the protest because IMTAS failed to demonstrate prejudice. The case also touched on the limits of the “too close at hand” doctrine in past performance and technical evaluations.