Link: GAO Opinion
Agency: Department of the Army
Disposition: Protest denied.
Keywords: Small business set-aside
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A protest challenging the Army’s evaluation of a proposal for a hotel as unsatisfactory because the proposed facility was located too far from the airport to meet the solicitation’s timeframes was denied because the record supported the reasonableness of the Army’s determination. The protest of an Army decision to not set aside the procurement exclusively for small businesses was found to be untimely when that fact was not protested at the time proposals were due but only after award. The GAO further stated that it would not entertain a post-award challenge to the adequacy of a set-aside decision based solely on the fact that the competition resulted in responses from two or more small businesses. Evidence to challenge a small business set aside must be prospective at the time of release of the RFP and not retrospective.