Check Your Margins -- Paper, Not Profit Close doesn’t count. The Government Accountability Office says a contractor’s proposal can be rejected if the margins on its pages are too narrow. In a solicitation for radio equipment, the Army specified that each page of the proposal must have one-inch margins at the top, bottom and on both sides. When Mathews Associates Inc. delivered pages with top margins of seven-eighths inch and bottom margins of one-half inch, the Army refused to consider the proposal. Mathews protested that the Army’s position was unreasonable, since the proposal had been submitted electronically and the margins could be changed with a few keystrokes. GAO said: “The question before us, however, is not what the agency could do, but what it was required to do. Viewed in this light, we do not think the Army was required to reformat, or allow Mathews to reformat, the proposal.” Acknowledging that the issue was a close call, GAO concluded, “On balance, however, we think there is nothing unfair, or unduly burdensome, about requiring offerors to assume the risks associated with submitting proposals that do not comply with clearly stated solicitation formatting requirements.” The case is Matter of: Mathews Associates, Inc., File: B-299305, available at www.gao.gov.