B-246001, October 8, 1991
Highlights
A matter that General Accounting Office will not consider. On the basis that the awardee is not a small business. We will not review a protester's challenge to another company's size status. While Adrian maintains that it is not protesting the awardee's size. The protest is dismissed.
B-246001, October 8, 1991
DIGEST: Protest of agency's failure to enforce solicitation's small business set- aside provisions in awarding a contract amounts to protest of awardee's size status, a matter that General Accounting Office will not consider.
Attorneys
Adrian Supply Company:
Adrian Supply Company protests the award of a contract under invitation for bids (IFB) No. N651-IFB1-3072, issued by the Department of the Interior, on the basis that the awardee is not a small business.
The Small Business Act, 15 U.S.C. Sec. 637(b)(6) (1988), gives the Small Business Administration, not our Office, the conclusive authority to determine matters of small business size status for federal procurements. 4 C.F.R. Sec. 21.3(m)(2); Service Eng'g Co., B-235958, July 20, 1989, 89-2 CPD Para. 71. Thus, we will not review a protester's challenge to another company's size status. Id. While Adrian maintains that it is not protesting the awardee's size, but rather "the agency's complete failure to enforce the set-aside provisions when confronted with the awardee's blatantly obvious attempt to circumvent them," this assertion does not change the fact that Adrian contests the awardee's representation of its size status.
Accordingly, the protest is dismissed.