[Protest of Navy Contract Award for Additions to Air Station Building]

A firm protested a Navy contract award to another firm for construction services, contending that: (1) the Navy violated its due process rights by referring the question of its responsibility to the Small Business Administration (SBA); (2) the Navy and SBA failed to give it adequate notice of the basis for the nonresponsibility determination or an opportunity to respond; (3) the SBA notification referred only to the firm's financial capacity and credit, and not to past performance; (4) the Navy improperly awarded the contract before SBA completed its review; (5) the Navy and SBA failed to notify it of the denial of a certificate of competency (COC); and (6) the Navy improperly documented the contract file. GAO held that: (1) the Navy did not violate the protester's due process rights since the protester knew that the Navy had invoked the COC procedure and had the opportunity to demonstrate its responsibility in its application; (2) SBA failure to notify the protester of the COC denial was a procedural deficiency; (3) the protester should have known that SBA would consider prior performance since its statutory authority extended to all elements of responsibility; (4) the Navy properly awarded the contract more than 15 days after the COC referral; (5) it would not review a COC denial absent evidence of fraud or bad faith; and (6) the Navy supplied the proper contract file documentation. Accordingly, the protest was dismissed.