[Protest of Army Rejection of Bid as Nonresponsive]
B-222972: Jul 28, 1986
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A firm protested the Army's rejection of its bid under a small business set-aside solicitation. The Army determined that the protester was nonresponsible and referred the matter to the Small Business Administration under certificate of competency (COC) procedures. The protester contended that: (1) the Army's negative responsibility determination was part of a continuous discriminatory pattern; and (2) SBA refused to issue a COC since it did not receive the application until the day before the application was due. GAO held that: (1) it would not review an agency's nonresponsibility determination since such action would be its substitution for the agency that had statutory authorization for such reviews; and (2) the contracting and preaward survey agencies did not act in bad faith where the record showed that the agencies had a reasonable basis for finding a protester nonresponsible, and the protester's COC application was inadequate even after it had an extended filing period. Accordingly, the protest was denied.
