Protest spotlight

(This regular feature highlights protests decided by the Government Accountability Office.)

Agency: Naval Sea Systems Command

Protester: Global Technical Systems

What GAO found: Global Technical Systems protested a Naval Sea Systems Command solicitation for common processing system technology insertion equipment, arguing the procurement should have been set aside for small businesses.

"GTS contends that the Navy's market research was flawed in several significant respects and that the agency’s goal in conducting market research was to justify its prior conclusion that small businesses could not perform the contract, rather than to fairly assess whether the agency would likely receive proposals from two or more small businesses capable of performing the work," the GAO report reads.

GAO disagreed with this assertion, but backed the protester's additional complaint that the solicitation did not provide enough information to allow offerors to compete on a common basis. The report says the solicitation contained "no description, beyond the vague requirement to provide analysis, conduct studies and/or support engineering changes, of the type of work to be performed or the goals to be achieved.

"As a result, offerors had no basis on which to formulate their proposed labor mix under this lowest-priced technically acceptable procurement," GAO adds, recommending the agency amend the solicitation.

The decision: http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/673628.pdf