AboutWeb LLC

B-416116.2 Nov 09, 2018 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights AboutWeb LLC, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, a small business, requests reimbursement of the costs of filing and pursuing its earlier protest that challenged the issuance of a Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) order to IT Concepts Inc., of Vienna, Virginia, under an unnumbered request for quotations (RFQ), issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA), for information technology local area network and desktop support services for the SSA Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Operations, at the SSA headquarters in Woodlawn, Maryland. AboutWeb argues that our Office should recommend that the SSA reimburse the protester's costs of filing and pursuing the earlier protest, and this claim, because the SSA allegedly failed to implement corrective action in a timely manner. We dismiss the protest and deny the request to recommend reimbursement of costs. We dismiss the protest and deny the request to recommend reimbursement of costs. View Decision DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. No party requested redactions; we are therefore releasing the decision in its entirety. Decision Matter of:  AboutWeb LLC--Protest and Costs  File:  B-416116.2 Date:  November 9, 2018  Edward J. Tolchin, Esq., Offit Kurman Attorneys at Law, for the protester. Uri R. Ko, Esq., and Brandon Dell’Aglio, Esq. Social Security Administration, for the agency. Paul N. Wengert, Esq., and Tania Calhoun, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protester’s request for recommendation that agency reimburse costs of filing and pursuing earlier protest due to agency’s alleged failure to proceed with corrective action is denied where agency implementation of corrective action was reasonable.  DECISION AboutWeb LLC, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, a small business, requests reimbursement of the costs of filing and pursuing its earlier protest that challenged the issuance of a Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) order to IT Concepts Inc., of Vienna, Virginia, under an unnumbered[1] request for quotations (RFQ), issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA), for information technology local area network and desktop support services for the SSA Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Operations, at the SSA headquarters in Woodlawn, Maryland.[2]  AboutWeb argues that our Office should recommend that the SSA reimburse the protester’s costs of filing and pursuing the earlier protest, and this claim, because the SSA allegedly failed to implement corrective action in a timely manner.  We dismiss the protest and deny the request to recommend reimbursement of costs. BACKGROUND The competition at issue was held among firms that had previously been issued SSA Small Business Information Technology blanket purchase agreements, which in turn had been established under those firms’ General Services Administration FSS contracts.  On March 2, 2018, the SSA notified AboutWeb (which had been the incumbent contractor up to that point) that the agency had issued the order to IT Concepts.  On March 8, AboutWeb filed a protest with our Office challenging the award.  On March 15, SSA submitted a notice that the Associate Commissioner for Acquisition and Grants had issued a determination that continuing performance of the order notwithstanding the pendency of this protest was in the best interests of the agency.  On March 28, counsel for SSA asked our Office to dismiss the protest because it planned to take corrective action by reevaluating the quotations and making a new source selection decision.  On April 3, in response to objections to the dismissal of the protest, counsel for the SSA submitted an updated description of the corrective action, stating that “SSA will open discussions, request revised proposals from the offerors, conduct a new evaluation of the proposals, and make a new contract award determination within 120 days of dismissal of the above-referenced protest.”  Notice of Corrective Action Letter (Apr. 3, 2018) at 1.  AboutWeb continued to object to the proposed corrective action on multiple bases, including that the corrective action would take longer than necessary, and would allow IT Concepts to continue performing even though the agency’s action in effect disavowed the validity of the underlying source selection decision.[3]  Our Office dismissed the protest as academic on April 6.  On August 20, AboutWeb inquired about the status of the agency’s corrective action, in response to which, it alleges, the SSA stated that corrective action would still take additional “weeks.”  Protest at 2.  On August 22, the SSA opened an additional round of discussions with the vendors, inviting them to submit new letters of commitment and staffing plans.  Id.  On August 23, AboutWeb filed this request for costs, arguing that SSA should reimburse t...