Matter of: National Customer Engineering File: B-250641 Date: October 5, 1992
Highlights
Are insufficient to constitute a valid protest. NCE states that it is a recent awardee of a General Services Administration nonmandatory schedule contract for maintenance of ADPE. Implies that it is not receiving inquiries or orders pursuant to that award. NCE suggests that agencies are issuing or intending to issue orders to schedule contractors at other than the lowest cost in violation of regulation. NCE further asserts that agencies have not been complying with statutory and regulatory requirements for timely publicizing intended orders in the Commerce Business Daily. What must be protested is some agency action or inaction in connection with a specific procurement. More generalized complaints are not a proper basis for protest.
Matter of: National Customer Engineering File: B-250641 Date: October 5, 1992
PROCUREMENT Bid Protests Dismissal Allegations of government-wide violations of laws and regulations governing acquisition of automatic data processing equipment and services, without identification of any specific procurement, are insufficient to constitute a valid protest; under the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984, a protest must relate to a specific procurement.
Attorneys
DECISION
National Customer Engineering (NCE) protests the failure of government agencies to comply with various provisions of law and regulation governing the acquisition of automatic data processing equipment (ADPE) and services. Specifically, NCE states that it is a recent awardee of a General Services Administration nonmandatory schedule contract for maintenance of ADPE, with prices lower than those of other schedule contractors, and implies that it is not receiving inquiries or orders pursuant to that award. Since the applicable regulations generally require agencies to satisfy their needs at the lowest overall cost, NCE suggests that agencies are issuing or intending to issue orders to schedule contractors at other than the lowest cost in violation of regulation. NCE further asserts that agencies have not been complying with statutory and regulatory requirements for timely publicizing intended orders in the Commerce Business Daily.
We cannot consider this protest.
The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984 (CICA) defines a protest as an objection to a solicitation leading to the award of a procurement contract or the award or proposed award of such a contract. 31 U.S.C. Sec. 3551 (1988). Our implementing regulations therefore permit an interested party to protest such a solicitation or award, and require the protester to furnish among other things, the name of the contracting agency and the solitation or contract number. See 4 C.F.R. Sec. 21.1 (1992). In other words, what must be protested is some agency action or inaction in connection with a specific procurement; more generalized complaints are not a proper basis for protest. A. Moe & Co., Inc., 64 Comp.Gen. 755 (1985), 85-2 CPD Para. 144; ADI System Consultants, B-231511, May 31, 1988, 88-1 CPD Para. 518; Electro-Methods, Inc., B-218180, Mar. 4, 1985, 85-1 CPD Para. 272.
NCE, however, does not identify any specific procurement with respect to which it believes law or regulation has been violated; it merely recites certain facts and infers from those facts that on a government-wide basis there have been statutory and regulatory violations. Under CICA and our protest regulations, this simply is not sufficient to constitute a valid protest. A. Moe & Co., Inc., supra.
The protest is dismissed.