Procurement such, the agency's determination concerns the firm's responsibility, requiring that the matter be referred to the Small Business Administration under certificate of competency procedures. Small businesses Responsibility ☐☐☐Competency certification GAO review 184 Request to reconsider dismissal of a protest alleging that the Small Business Administration (SBA) failed to consider vital information regarding protester's past performance history in conjunction with a certificate of competency (COC) proceeding is denied where record shows that protester did not discharge its obligation to provide its own assessment of its performance history to SBA when requested to do so during the COC proceeding rather than that the procuring agency failed to furnish any required information to SBA. 273 Special Procurement Methods/Categories Food services Administrative regulations ☐☐☐☐ Interpretation Where Department of Education, charged with issuing and enforcing regulations under RandolphSheppard Act, and Department of Defense, having issued its own regulations to implement the Act, each interpreted the statute and its own regulations as applying to a procurement for full food services, those interpretations are entitled to deference unless found to be unreasonable. Service contracts Food services ☐☐☐ Statutory regulations ☐☐☐☐ Applicability 241 Department of the Air Force correctly determined that Randolph-Sheppard Act, which affords a priority to blind licensees for contracts to operate cafeterias, was applicable to a requirement for full food service at an Air Force base since the requirement is for providing meals at base dining halls operated essentially as cafeterias and therefore is within the scope of cafeteria contracts contemplated by statute, notwithstanding that services incidental to cafeteria food services also are required. 241 Procurement Service contracts | Statutory regulations ■■■■ Applicability Where Department of Education, charged with issuing and enforcing regulations under RandolphSheppard Act, and Department of Defense, having issued its own regulations to implement the Act, each interpreted the statute and its own regulations as applying to a procurement for full food services, those interpretations are entitled to deference unless found to be unreasonable. 241 Specifications Brand name/equal specifications Equivalent products | Salient characteristics Descriptive literature In a negotiated procurement issued on a "brand name or equal" basis, award was improperly made to a firm offering an "equal" product where the descriptive material that the awardee submitted with its offer did not demonstrate compliance with two of the stated salient characteristics. Minimum needs standards Competitive restrictions 81 Design specifications Justification Solicitation's purchase item description identifying standard commercial lock by manufacturer part number and national stock number (NSN) is not unduly restrictive where (1) procurement is conducted under Federal Acquisition Regulation small purchase procedures; (2) offerors could readily obtain additional item information using either the listed part number or the NSN item number; and (3) solicitation permitted offers for functionally interchangeable, alternate products. Minimum needs standards Competitive restrictions 6 Design specifications ■ Overstatement Protest of agency's rejection of proposal for ship is sustained where agency's overstatement of its minimum needs in the solicitation misled protester into offering unnecessary modifications and resulted in rejection of proposed ship for failure to meet requirements as is. 42 Procurement Minimum needs standards GAO review Solicitation requirement that both hardware and software maintenance services be provided by the same contractor unduly restricts competition where the record does not provide a reasonable basis for the determination that the combined requirement reflects the agency's minimum needs. Minimum needs standards Competitive restrictions ☐☐☐ Performance specifications ☐☐☐☐ Geographic restrictions Where competitive 8(a) procurement included an experience requirement which exceeded the reported capabilities of 8(a) firms in the procuring activity's "local buy" region, Small Business Administration (SBA) reasonably determined that there was not a reasonable expectation that at least two 8(a) firms located in the local buy region would submit offers; accordingly, SBA's decision to expand 8(a) procurement's geographic area to include firms located in region adjacent to the local buy region is unobjectionable since applicable SBA regulation authorizes such an expansion under these circumstances. Minimum needs standards Total package procurement ☐☐☐Propriety 101 Protester's contention that an agency's package approach to procuring 97 different types of rivets in 4 lots unduly restricts competition is sustained where: (1) the structure of the solicitation excludes the participation of the protester-who could offer 88 of the 97 rivets-but who cannot submit an offer to provide any 1 of the 4 lots of rivets because each lot contains at least 1 rivet listed in an administrative agreement in lieu of debarment between the agency and the protester; (2) the agency failed to provide any evidence that this particular grouping of rivets was necessary to meet its minimum needs; (3) excluding the protester has a significant effect on the level of competition for these rivets; and (4) the protester has shown that a minor adjustment to the allocation of rivets may save the agency even more money than the package approach in the current solicitation. 149 |