Protest of EPA Issuance of Sole-Source Solicitation and Resultant Contract

A company protested issuance of a sole-source solicitation and the resultant contract by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for up-dating and/or modifying visual and audio equipment at an EPA facility. Protester contended that awardee's performance of the contract represented conflict of interest on the part of the awardee, and that specifications had been copied directly from the awardee's successful proposal for another essentially identical system for which the protester's proposal had been judged technically acceptable and for which the Government had payed only half as much. Where the record does not indicate that only one firm could submit an acceptable proposal based on agency specifications, award of the contract on a sole-source basis to avoid the cost and administrative inconvenience of developing refined data was improper, especially as the contract price included an allowance for any testing needed to compensate for lack of such data. No remedial action was possible as performance under the contract had been completed.