[Protest of Navy Contract Award for Engineering Services]

A firm protested a Navy contract award for engineering services, contending that the: (1) Navy's removal of an evaluation team member was improper and unfair, since it allowed another similarly situated member to remain; and (2) the solicitation's structure and the Navy's evaluation led to a sole-source procurement. GAO held that the: (1) Navy acted reasonably in removing a member from the evaluation team that had a potential conflict of interest; (2) protester untimely filed after bid opening its protest against alleged solicitation improprieties; and (3) Navy properly evaluated the proposals consistently with the evaluation criteria. Accordingly, the protest was denied.