[Protests of FmHA Contract Awards for Interest Credit Renewal Services]

A firm protested 10 Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) contract awards for interest credit renewal services, contending that FmHA: (1) improperly evaluated proposals; and (2) failed to provide preaward notice of its intention to make awards under various small business set-asides. GAO held that: (1) FmHA reasonably downscored the protester's bid, which contained only general information about quality control; (2) FmHA reasonably reduced quality control scores assigned by an inexperienced panel of evaluators to conform to lower scores assigned by experienced evaluators; (3) disagreement with FmHA regarding additional technical points under quality control evaluation did not provide a basis for protest; (4) allegation that an awardee was not performing the contract was a matter of contract administration; (5) awardee's employment of protester's employee after award did not indicate that awardee had insufficient resources to perform at the time of award; (6) the record did not support the protester's contention that an awardee's low score should have eliminated it from the competitive range; and (7) the protester untimely filed its protest regarding FmHA intention to make awards under solicitations set aside for small businesses more than 10 days after it learned of the basis for protest. Accordingly, the protests were denied in part and dismissed in part.