B-297262, Metro Home Medical Supply, Inc., December 8, 2005

B-297262 Dec 08, 2005 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Metro Home Medical Supply, Inc., a certified Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) small business, protests the decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to procure supplies and services for beneficiaries of the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Detroit under request for proposals (RFP) No. 583-00035-06, rather than through award of a contract to Metro on a sole-source basis. We deny the protest. View Decision B-297262, Metro Home Medical Supply, Inc., December 8, 2005 Decision Matter of: Metro Home Medical Supply, Inc. File: B-297262 Date: December 8, 2005 Cheryl Anderson-Small for the protester. Merilee D. Rosenberg, Esq., and Philip Kauffman, Esq., Department of Veterans Affairs, and John W. Klein, Esq., and Kenneth Dodds, Esq., Small Business Administration, for the agencies. Jennifer D. Westfall-McGrail, Esq., and Christine S. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest objecting to agency's failure to make award to protester, an Historically Underutilized Business Zone small business, on a sole-source basis is denied where prerequisites for a sole-source award, set forth in Federal Acquisition Regulation sect. 19.1306, were not met. DECISION Metro Home Medical Supply, Inc., a certified Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) small business, protests the decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to procure supplies and services for beneficiaries of the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Detroit under request for proposals (RFP) No. 583-00035-06, rather than through award of a contract to Metro on a sole-source basis. We deny the protest. The RFP, which was issued on July 15, 2005, sought home oxygen supplies and services for patients of seven VA medical centers and health care systems located in Veterans Integrated Service Network 11, one of which was the John D. Dingell VAMC. The solicitation contemplated the award of one or more fixed-price requirements contracts for a base period of 1 year and four 1-year options. The RFP, as amended, provided for award on the basis of the following cascaded preferences: for the John D. Dingell VAMC and three of the other facilities, if technically acceptable, competitive proposals were received from two or more HUBZone small businesses, award would be made to a HUBZone small business; for the remaining three facilities and for any of the above facilities not resulting in award to a HUBZone small business, if technically acceptable, competitive offers were received from two or more small businesses, award would be made to a small business; and in the event that award was not made pursuant to either of the above procedures, award would be made on the basis of full and open competition. On September 20, 3 days prior to the closing date for receipt of proposals, Metro protested to our Office, arguing that supplies and services for the John D. Dingell VAMC should be removed from the cascaded award process and a contract for them awarded to it on a sole-source basis under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) sect. 19.1306. (Except in this limited sense, the protester did not challenge the lawfulness of the cascade approach.) The protester asserted that the VA has not complied with the goals for contracting to HUBZone small businesses that it has set for itself pursuant to the requirements of 15 U.S.C. sect. 644(g)(2) (2000), and that to remedy the noncompliance, the agency should award it (i.e., Metro) a sole-source contract.[1] The VA responds that it could not award a sole-source contract to Metro because the requirements of FAR sect. 19.1306 were not satisfied.[2] As relevant here, this section provides that a contracting officer may award a contract to a HUBZone small business concern on a sole-source basis without considering small business set-asides, provided that: (1) Only one HUBZone small business concern can satisfy the requirement; (2) The anticipated price of the contract, including options, will not exceed $5 million for a requirement within the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes for manufacturing, or $3 million for a requirement within any other NAICS code; (3) The requirement is not currently being performed by a non-HUBZone small business concern; (4) The value of the acquisition exceeds the simplified acquisition threshold; (5) The HUBZone small business concern has been determined to be a responsible contractor with respect to performance; and (6) Award can be made at a fair and reasonable price. FAR sect.