PR Newswire Association, LLC
Highlights
PR Newswire Association, LLC protests the award of a contract to Business Wire, Inc. under request for proposals (RFP) No. HHS-ASPA-NEWSDIVISION, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for public relations assistance, including dissemination of news releases, press statements, media advisories and other time-sensitive media materials. PR Newswire asserts that the agency failed to "properly notify" it of the RFP.
B-400430, PR Newswire Association, LLC, September 26, 2008
Decision
Matter of: PR Newswire Association, LLC
Brian Taylor for the protester.
Daniel Selnick, for Business Wire, Inc., an intervenor.
Michael I. Goulding, Esq., Department of Health and Human Services, for the agency.
Paul E. Jordan, Esq., and John M. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
DIGEST
Agency was not required to provide actual notice of solicitation to incumbent contractor; posting of solicitation on FedBizOpps Internet site provided constructive notice to all potential offerors, including protester.
DECISION
PR Newswire Association, LLC protests the award of a contract to Business Wire, Inc. under request for proposals (RFP) No.
PR Newswire is
The jurisdiction of our Office is established by the bid protest provisions of the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984, 31 U.S.C. sections 3551-3556 (2000), amended by the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375, sect. 326, 118 Stat. 1811 (2004). Our role in resolving bid protests is to ensure that the statutory requirements for full and open competition are met. Pacific Photocopy and Research Servs., B-278698, B'278698.3,
PR Newswire asserts that the agency was required to provide it actual notice of the RFP's issuance. However, it cites no authority for this proposition, and we are aware of none. As noted by the agency, and conceded by the protester (Comments at 1), for proposed contract actions--such as this RFP--in excess of $25,000, the agency is required to publish a synopsis and solicitation information on the government point of entry (GPE), accessed through FedBizOpps. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) sections 2.101, 501(a) and 5.102; see 41 U.S.C. sect. 416(a)(7) (2000) (electronic solicitation publication on GPE meets requirements for accessibility of notice). Since FedBizOpps has been expressly designated by statute and regulation as the official public medium for providing notice of contracting actions by federal agencies, and
Our conclusion is not changed by the protester's alleged unsuccessful attempts to obtain solicitation information from agency personnel. In this regard, PR Newswire asserts that, as it performed its contract work, its staff made repeated inquiries of
Likewise, the fact that the agency furnished actual notice to Business Wire provides no valid basis for protest. Again, the agency furnished legally sufficient notice to all potential offerors, and the fact that the agency also provided Business Wire with actual notice pursuant to its proposed corrective action, in response to the earlier protest, did not render that notice inadequate.
The protest is denied.
Gary L. Kepplinger
General Counsel
[1] The protester's status as the incumbent contractor also had no effect on the agency's notice responsibilities. At one time--but no longer--the FAR required that bids shall be solicited from . . . the previously successful bidder or offeror for the requirement. See (superseded) FAR sections 14.205-4 and 15.403. The current FAR does not require such notice to incumbent contractors; thus,