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Request for Reconsideration Concerning Small Business Set-Aside

B-201956 Sep 23, 1981
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Highlights

A small business concern requested reconsideration of a prior denial of its request to overturn the dissolution of a partial small business set-aside. In that decision, GAO held that the Department of Commerce had properly dissolved the partial small business set-aside because the price submitted by the protester was unreasonable for the data processing portion of the procurement. The protester's bid was the only one submitted by a technically acceptable small business. In its request for reconsideration, the protester contended that: (1) the GAO finding that the partial set-aside was dissolved because of an agency determination of price unreasonableness constituted a distortion of the record; (2) the agency actually acted because of its mistaken belief that the partial set-aside formulation was illegal because the solicitation did not specify a separate portion reserved for small business only; and (3) the GAO decision did not address its arguments that the agency was estopped from denying it the data processing award under the partial set-aside. GAO found that the dissolution was properly based on the agency determination of price unreasonableness. Further, even if the agency had specifically dissolved a set-aside for an erroneous reason, that is of no consequence where a proper contemporaneous reason adequately supported the determination to dissolve. Additionally, the estoppel doctrine was not applicable in this case since the Government had not indicated that the protester would receive the award. Finally, a small business which elects to compete for a partial small business set-aside, rather than submit a proposal in conjunction with a large business, has no grounds to object to a set-aside dissolution when its unreasonably high price provided the basis for dissolution of the set-aside.

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