T3i, Inc. (B-423815)

You should not care.

Category: Price realism, LPTA, labor rates

Date: 30 December 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423815

T3i protested the Air Force’s rejection of its proposal under an LPTA task-order competition for Air Force aircrew readiness support. The issue was price realism in a fixed-price, level-of-effort, order where the solicitation expressly required prices to be realistic.

T3i proposed the lowest total evaluated price and the required 129 full-time equivalents, but the Air Force separately reviewed the firm’s unburdened hourly labor rates and found 25 of the 129 rates unrealistically low. That finding knocked T3i out of the competition despite its low overall price, and the agency then awarded to the next-lowest technically acceptable offeror, LMR.

GAO denied the protest. It found the Air Force’s price realism review reasonable and consistent with the solicitation’s express evaluation terms. The decision is a reminder that when a solicitation says a fixed-price proposal must reflect realistic labor pricing, agencies can reject a low offer that appears unable to support required staffing rates.

The protest is denied.

Digest

Protest that agency unreasonably rejected protester's proposal based on unrealistic pricing is denied where the record shows that the agency's price realism analysis was reasonable and consistent with the solicitation.