Request for Reconsideration
Highlights
A firm requested reconsideration of a prior decision denying its protest of the cancellation of an Air Force invitation for bids (IFB) and the issuance of another IFB resoliciting the same requirements. The original IFB was for packing and crating services in five geographic areas. Certain items in three areas were partially set aside for small businesses. The Air Force canceled the first IFB and resolicited the requirements because the IFB contained an improper notice of a partial set-aside; the Air Force intended to totally set aside those items. The prior GAO decision denied the firm's protest because GAO understood the protester to be the low bidder. The protester was the low bidder on certain non-set-aside items and protested the cancellation of those items, alleging that: (1) the erroneous small business set-aside notice affected the set-aside portion of the solicitation only, (2) only this portion should have been canceled and readvertised, (3) the unrestricted portion of the solicitation should not have been canceled, and (4) the award should have been made to the lowest bidder for that portion of the original solicitation. GAO held that, where competition for the unrestricted portion of the IFB may have been distorted, cancellation of an entire IFB after bid opening due to an incorrect small business set-aside clause was proper. Accordingly, the original decision was affirmed.