Complaint Regarding Award of Cooperative Agreement

A company complained of the Department of Energy's (DOE) refusal to award it a cooperative agreement for the development of solar collectors under, a Program Research and Development Annoucement (PRDA). The complainant argued that DOE violated established procurement norms by using evaluation criteria other than those set forth in the PRDA, by using a technical consultant in the proposal evaluation that had a predetermined bias against the complainant's technical approach, and by refusing to enter into meaningful discussions with the complainant. Pursuant to a public notice, GAO will consider complaints from prospective contractors concerning the award of contracts by grantees under Federal grants and with statutory and agency regulations. However, as the public notice indicates, it is not the intention of GAO to interfere with the functions and responsibilities of grantor agencies in the actual award of grants. For that reason GAO does not consider the propriety of individual grant awards. Accordingly, the complaint was dismissed.