Warrior Service Company (36C79123R0001)

B-421364 Apr 13, 2023 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Warrior Service Company, a small business of Hialeah, Florida, protests the terms of request for proposals (RFP) No. 36C79123R0001, issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), for wheeled mobility repair services. The protester asserts that the solicitation impermissibly bundles several requirements that could be performed by small businesses, without proper justification and authorization. We deny the protest. View Decision DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This redacted version has been approved for public release. Decision Matter of: Warrior Service Company File: B-421364 Date: April 13, 2023 Frank V. Reilly, Esq., Frank V. Reilly Attorney at Law, for the protester. Maura C. Brown, Esq., and Jean Athey, Esq., Department of Veterans Affairs, for the agency. Katherine I. Riback, Esq., and Alexander O. Levine, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest challenging agency decision’s to procure wheeled mobility repair services in a nationwide contract as impermissible bundling under the Small Business Act is denied where the record shows that the requirement is a new service, and where the protester fails to demonstrate that the solicitation bundles separate smaller contracts previously performed by small businesses. DECISION Warrior Service Company, a small business of Hialeah, Florida, protests the terms of request for proposals (RFP) No. 36C79123R0001, issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), for wheeled mobility repair services. The protester asserts that the solicitation impermissibly bundles several requirements that could be performed by small businesses, without proper justification and authorization. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND The VA is the largest provider of wheeled mobility devices (manual wheelchairs, scooters, and custom power wheelchairs) in the world. Agency Report (AR), Tab 15, Decl. of VA Clinical Nurse Program Manager at 1. The VA currently provides repairs to wheeled mobility devices in multiple ways, using multiple gatekeepers to initiate the triage, approval and procurement of repairs. The majority of repairs are procured via purchase card transactions, due to the absence of specific wheelchair repair contracts. AR, Tab 14, Decl. of VA Physical Therapist at 2. Some repairs are purchased under local durable medical equipment (DME) contracts, with these repairs representing a small part of the comprehensive local DME contract.[1] Id. A small fraction of wheeled mobility repairs are done in VA facilities that have full‑time staff trained to perform minor wheeled mobility repairs.[2] Id. As relevant here, on March 14, 2018, the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) concluded an investigation of wheelchair repairs and found that the VA’s process for buying wheelchair repairs needed to be revised. AR, Tab 13, VA OIG Report. In this regard, the OIG report determined that there was no standard method for the procurement of wheeled mobility repairs. In addition, it concluded that there was no standard for the timeline and monitoring of such repairs. The OIG recommended that the VA create a requirement to monitor and track all repairs from request to completion. The OIG also recommended that loaner wheelchairs be provided during repair, that controls be imposed on the cost of repairs, and that improvements be made to repair times. Id. at 10. The agency determined that these recommendations could best be met by the establishment of a single, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity national contract. Contracting Officer Statement (COS) at 1-2. This contract would augment the VA’s existing ability to provide services, and improve access to repairs through an automated system in conjunction with the agency’s wheeled mobility equipment repair services. To this end, the contract would establish a customer service point of contact for veterans and VA staff for repair requests, ensure customer satisfaction and quality assurance for repairs, and leverage the VA enterprise account to establish favorable pricing for repairs and parts through the cost savings achieved by streamlining internal processes. Id. The repair requirement also included the provision of parts, the rental of customized power wheelchairs and manual wheelchairs, and the establishment of a 24 hours, 7 days a week (24/7) customer service center for service requests, quality assurance reports, repair trend reports, and maintenance or manufacturing recall follow-up. Id. at 2. The agency conducted market research and concluded that there was no reasonable expectation that at least two responsible small businesses could perform the wheeled mobility repair service on a nationwide level. AR, Tab 11, Market Research.