Protest Alleging Improper Award of Sole Source Negotiated Contract

The protester objected to the award of a sole-source negotiated contract. The decision to negotiate a sole-source contract was justified since award to a bidder who did not quality for waiver of first article testing would not have met the agency's need for urgent delivery, and the record showed that only one firm was qualified for the waiver. Where the record failed to show that consideration of the protester's prior performance would have qualified the protester for waiver, the agency's determination that it was not qualified for waiver was proper. The protest regarding the eligibility of the awardee for waiver was untimely since it was filed over a month after the protester was aware of the approval of the waiver. The allegation that the alleged improper award of the sole-source contract gave the awardee an undue competitive advantage on subsequent procurements was without merit since such advantage was the type of commercial advantage normally enjoyed by suppliers producing a procured item under another contract at the time of bidding.