Link: GAO Opinion
Agency: Small Business Administration
Disposition: Protests denied.
General Counsel P.C. Highlight:
GAO denied the protests of Colonial Press International, Inc., a small business, based on the award of two contracts by the Government Printing Office (GPO). The first contract was awarded to Fry Communications, Inc. under an invitation for bids (IFB) for printing of a Medicare handbook for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The second contract was awarded to Monarch Litho, Inc. under IFB for printing of a healthy eating booklet for the Food and Nutrition Service.
The agency issued the IFB to print 63 versions of books for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The IFB was for the award of a single fixed-price, with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract for a one-year base period and up to four one-year option periods. Colonial submitted the bid that offered the lowest price. The agency issued a second IFB seeking bids to print 560,000 copies of another booklet and Colonial again submitted the lowest-priced bid. In both cases, the agency found that Colonial had made late deliveries, and therefore, Colonial was found to be not responsible. Colonial protests that determination.
Colonial argues that, as a small business, its responsibility determination should have been forwarded to the Small Business Administration (SBA). GAO first determined that GPO is not subject to the requirements of the Small Business Act. GAO also determined that the contracting officer’s determination was reasonable where Colonial’s past late deliveries rendered it not responsible. GPO awards contracts under the authority of the GPO Printing Procurement Regulation, which stated that responsibility includes the ability to “comply with the proposed delivery schedules.”