[Protest of Agriculture Contract Award]

A firm protested a Department of Agriculture decision to set aside and award a contract to a small, economically disadvantaged business concern. The protester raised various objections pertaining to the awardee's ability to perform the contract and the contract price and requested that the contract be opened to competitive bids. The Small Business Administration is authorized to enter into contracts with any government agency to arrange for the performance of contracts by socially and economically disadvantaged small business concerns under the Small Business 8(a) Procurement Program. GAO neither reviews decisions to effect procurements under this program nor considers protests of such awards absent a showing of fraud or bad faith on the part of government officials, neither of which was alleged here. Therefore, since the awardee's ability to fulfill the contract and the contract price were not matters for GAO consideration, the protest was dismissed.