Matter of Orlans PC Decided: October 25, 2022 Agency: Department of Agriculture Disposition: Protest Sustained Keywords: Customary Commercial Practice; Commercial Item Acquisition Protest Insight This case is an example of a protester successfully challenging the terms of a solicitation before the submission of proposals was complete. Here, the protester argued that the solicitation terms were
Link: GAO Opinion Agency: Department of Health and Human Services Disposition: Protest denied. General Counsel P.C. Highlight: GAO denied the protest of Information Ventures, Inc., regarding the award of a contract to AlphaTRAC Inc., under a request for quotations (RFQ), issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Institutes for Health, National
Link: GAO Opinion Agency: Department of the Air Force Disposition: Protest denied. General Counsel P.C. Highlight: GAO denied the protest of Security Management and Integration, Inc. (SMI), based on the rejection of its proposal under a request for proposals (RFP), issued by the Department of the Air Force for mess attendant services. The RFP was
Link: GAO Decision Protestor: Herman Miller, Inc. Agency: Department of the Air Force; General Services Administration Disposition: Protest Denied. _________________________________________________________________________ GAO Digest: A solicitation with a two-tiered acquisition approach, under which manufacturers would receive contracts that include not-to-exceed prices for furniture systems and dealers would receive separate contracts for installation of the systems at prices
Link: GAO Decision Protestor: PN&A, Inc. Agency: Department of Energy Disposition: Protest Denied. _________________________________________________________________________ GAO Digest: Protest that agency misevaluated protester’s quotation is denied where the record reasonably supports evaluation that the protester’s quotation was unacceptable in several respects and the protester has provided no basis to question the reasonableness of the agency’s evaluation. General
Link: GAO Opinion Agency: Defense Logistics Agency Disposition: Protest denied. Keywords: Terms of a Solicitation; Commercial Item Acquisition —————————————————————————————————————————– General Counsel P.C. Highlight: FAR § 12.302(c) bars the tailoring of solicitations for commercial items in a manner inconsistent with customary commercial practice unless a waiver is approved in accordance with agency procedures. The request for waiver
Link: GAO Opinion Agency: Army Corps of Engineers Disposition: Protest denied. Keywords: Commercial Product Acquisition; HUBZone Price Preference General Counsel P.C. Highlight: HUBZone price preferences cannot be used against other small businesses. —————————————————————————————————————————– The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) issued a solicitation for purchase of an aquatic herbicide under FAR Part 12, Acquisition of
Link: GAO Opinion Agency: Federal Emergency Management Agency Disposition: Protest denied. Keywords: Commercial items General Counsel P.C. Highlight: Challenges over whether a product is considered to be a commercial item is largely within the discretion of the contracting agency. These determinations are given great deference by the GAO and are very difficult to overturn on
Link: GAO Opinion Agencies: Department of the Interior Disposition: Protests denied. —————————————————————————————————————————– Voith Hydro, Inc. protested the terms of two Department of the Interior Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for generator and excitation systems for the Folsom and the Nimbus power plants in California. Voith claimed that the RFPs, which were issued as negotiated procurements under
Link: GAO Opinion Agency: Internal Revenue Service Disposition: Protest denied. ________________________________________________________________________________ GAO Digest: 1. Agency reasonably found awardee’s proposed system to be commercially available where it was of a type customarily used by, and had been sold to, the general public, in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation definition incorporated by the solicitation, as amended.