![]() ![]() ![]() Collectively, they signal that GAO intends to hold contracting agencies to new legislative and regulatory provisions aimed at making it easier for participants in SBA’s mentor-protégé program to pursue set-aside awards as a joint venture.Shareholder October 28, 2022, the Department of Defense’s amendments to FAR 52.212-3 and FAR 52.219-1 became effective. These decisions are a reminder to closely review solicitation requirements that may restrict the ability of mentor-protégé joint ventures to compete for set-aside opportunities. GAO disagreed because the express language in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 prohibited DOD agencies from requiring small business joint ventures to have clearances when all members of the joint venture are cleared. Department of Defense (DOD), which has authority to establish procedures and standards regarding security clearances, should take precedence over any regulations issued by SBA. The contracting agency argued that the regulations of the U.S. The protester argued that this restriction violates various statutory and regulatory provisions governing small business joint ventures, including the SBA regulation stating that:Ī joint venture may be awarded a contract requiring a facility security clearance where either the joint venture itself or the individual partner(s) to the joint venture that will perform the necessary security work has (have) a facility security clearance. 27, 2021, 2021 CPD ¶ 290, involved a solicitation requirement that a joint venture competing for award must itself hold a Top Secret facility clearance, even if the joint venture members are cleared. The second decision, InfoPoint, LLC, B-419856, Aug. ![]() SBA agreed, asserting in its response to the protest that its regulations mean that “protégés must be held to a different experience standard from mentors and other offerors.” procuring activity may not require the protégé firm to individually meet the same evaluation or responsibility criteria as that required of other offerors generally.Īlthough the contracting agency argued that the solicitation’s experience requirements reflected its minimum needs, GAO found that it violated the express language of SBA’s regulations. When evaluating the capabilities, past performance, experience, business systems and certifications of an entity submitting an offer for a contract set aside or reserved for small business as a joint venture. The protester argued that this requirement ran afoul of SBA regulations providing that: 26, 2021, 2021 CPD ¶ 178, involved a solicitation provision that effectively required the protégé member of a mentor-protégé joint venture to individually have the same level of experience as other small business offerors. The first decision, Innovate Now, LLC, B-419546, Apr. ![]() The decisions serve as important reminders that although the law may have changed, agencies may fail to implement those changes in their solicitations. Both were matters of first impression for GAO, in which GAO interpreted new rules related to the Small Business Administration’s (SBA’s) mentor-protégé program. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued two decisions sustaining challenges to solicitation restrictions on mentor-protégé joint ventures. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |