Protest re Bidder's Responsibility and SBA Failure to Appeal That Determination

A claimant protested the rejection of its bid for Surface Traveling Activated Remotely (STAR) devices to replenish ships at sea, on the grounds of nonresponsibility due to lack of tenacity and perserverance causing poor performance on two previous contracts for the same devices. GAO will not disturb finding of nonresponsibility since finding was not unreasonable. Although contracting officer mistakenly sent notice of nonresponsibility to wrong regional Small Business Administration (SBA) office, the SBA failure to timely appeal may not be blamed on contracting officer, since the proper SBA office received notice prior to award. Protest was denied.