![]() ![]() 27, 2021, 2021 CPD ¶ 290, involved a solicitation requirement that a joint venture competing for award must itself hold a Top Secret facility clearance, even if the joint venture members are cleared. The second decision, InfoPoint, LLC, B-419856, Aug. SBA agreed, asserting in its response to the protest that its regulations mean that “protégés must be held to a different experience standard from mentors and other offerors.” procuring activity may not require the protégé firm to individually meet the same evaluation or responsibility criteria as that required of other offerors generally.Īlthough the contracting agency argued that the solicitation’s experience requirements reflected its minimum needs, GAO found that it violated the express language of SBA’s regulations. ![]() When evaluating the capabilities, past performance, experience, business systems and certifications of an entity submitting an offer for a contract set aside or reserved for small business as a joint venture. The protester argued that this requirement ran afoul of SBA regulations providing that: 26, 2021, 2021 CPD ¶ 178, involved a solicitation provision that effectively required the protégé member of a mentor-protégé joint venture to individually have the same level of experience as other small business offerors. The first decision, Innovate Now, LLC, B-419546, Apr. The decisions serve as important reminders that although the law may have changed, agencies may fail to implement those changes in their solicitations. Both were matters of first impression for GAO, in which GAO interpreted new rules related to the Small Business Administration’s (SBA’s) mentor-protégé program. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued two decisions sustaining challenges to solicitation restrictions on mentor-protégé joint ventures.
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