[Request for Reconsideration]

The Small Business Administration (SBA) and a firm requested that GAO reconsider the decision in which it sustained a protest against the award of a contract for the development and maintenance of software systems for the Navy under the SBA section 8(a) program. GAO recommended that SBA no longer consider the firm for the Navy requirement or for any further contracts under the 8(a) program unless the determination by the SBA Size Appeals Board that the firm was not a small business is formally reversed. The firm filed suit in a district court for declaratory and injunctive relief and the court requested a decision from GAO. The determination that the protester was no longer eligible for contract awards under the 8(a) program was made pursuant to an SBA size review of fifty participants in the 8(a) program whose receipts indicated that they had ceased to be small businesses. However, GAO noted that, despite the adverse size determination, SBA continued to award contracts to the firm at a level totally inconsistent with the size standard upon which the firm's 8(a) eligibility was based. It is against this background that SBA had proposed to award the Navy procurement for an estimated $1.9 million that prompted the protest by the awardee. Accordingly, GAO affirmed its prior decision, which sustained a protest against award of a contract to the firm under the SBA section 8(a) program, since it has not been established that the decision was based on error or law or fact.