Professional Landscape Management Services, Inc.--Costs

A firm requests reimbursement of the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing its protest of the Army Corps of Engineers' determination to issue request for proposals as a small-business set-aside, rather than setting the procurement aside exclusively for small businesses certified under the Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Program. GAO found that the agency unduly delayed taking corrective action in the face of a clearly meritorious protest; a protest is clearly meritorious when a reasonable agency inquiry into the protester's allegations would have revealed that the agency had not taken reasonable steps to determine whether the procurement needed to be set aside for HUBZone small businesses. According, GAO recommends that the protester be reimbursed the costs of filing and pursuing its protest.