COMMITS Protest Upheld The Government Accountability Office has sustained a protest by a losing offeror on the Commerce Department’s COMMITS NexGen governmentwide acquisition contract. GAO agreed with Mil Inc. that Commerce improperly downgraded its past performance rating and failed to consider its low prices in denying the company a share of the small business set-aside GWAC. Commerce gave Mil the lowest rating on past performance awards, finding that four of the contract awards Mil had submitted were made to entities other than Mil and the fifth was not relevant to the requirements under COMMITS NexGen. GAO said the Federal Acquisition Regulation requires a company to be rated “neutral” if it has no relevant past performance. GAO found that Commerce did not give “meaningful consideration” to the fact that Mil’s evaluated price was lower than that of many successful offerors. It said the law requires that price must always be considered, even if it is not a major factor. GAO recommended that the department re-evaluate Mil’s proposal. The case is File B-294836.