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B-423993.4,B-423993.5 May 13, 2026 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Effective Communication Strategies, LLC (ECS), a small business of Rapid City, Michigan, and the Department of the Army separately request that we modify the recommended corrective action set forth in our decision Effective Communications Strategies, LLC; Corps of Engineers, B-423993.1, B-423993.2, Feb. 18, 2026. In that case, we sustained ECS's protest against the award of a contract to Export 220 Volt, Inc., a small business of Houston, Texas, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. W912DY-25-Q-A101, issued by the Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers for replacement appliances at multiple U.S. Navy installations. We concluded that the agency failed to provide offerors with adequate time to respond to a number of solicitation amendments and technical evaluation notices, and recommended that the agency amend the solicitation to provide vendors a reasonable opportunity to submit revised quotations, evaluate those quotations, and make a new award decision. The Army requests that we modify our recommendation to reopen the competition and make a new award decision because the contract has already been substantially completed and, thus, our recommended corrective action is no longer feasible. The protester asserts that because the protested contract has been substantially completed, our Office should, in the alternative, recommend that it be reimbursed its reasonable quotation preparation costs. We agree that modification of our remedy is appropriate here, and, therefore, grant the requests. 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: Effective Communication Strategies, LLC; Corps of Engineers File: B-423993.4; B-423993.5 Date: May 13, 2026 Sarah S. Reida, Esq., Legal Meets Practical, LLC, for the protester. Robert I. Moore, Esq., Department of the Army, for the agency.  Suresh S. Boodram, Esq., and Evan D. Wesser, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Requests for modification of our recommendation to reopen the competition and make a new award decision are granted where the protested contract has been substantially completed. Where the protester is left with no other meaningful remedy, the recovery of bid and quotation costs is warranted. DECISION Effective Communication Strategies, LLC (ECS), a small business of Rapid City, Michigan, and the Department of the Army separately request that we modify the recommended corrective action set forth in our decision Effective Communications Strategies, LLC; Corps of Engineers, B-423993.1, B-423993.2, Feb. 18, 2026. In that case, we sustained ECS's protest against the award of a contract to Export 220 Volt, Inc., a small business of Houston, Texas, under request for quotations (RFQ) No. W912DY-25-Q-A101, issued by the Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers for replacement appliances at multiple U.S. Navy installations. We concluded that the agency failed to provide offerors with adequate time to respond to a number of solicitation amendments and technical evaluation notices, and recommended that the agency amend the solicitation to provide vendors a reasonable opportunity to submit revised quotations, evaluate those quotations, and make a new award decision. The Army requests that we modify our recommendation to reopen the competition and make a new award decision because the contract has already been substantially completed and, thus, our recommended corrective action is no longer feasible. The protester asserts that because the protested contract has been substantially completed, our Office should, in the alternative, recommend that it be reimbursed its reasonable quotation preparation costs. We agree that modification of our remedy is appropriate here, and, therefore, grant the requests. We have consistently concluded that requests for modification of a recommended remedy are effectively requests for reconsideration and have resolved them consistent with our regulations governing requests for reconsideration. See Department of the Air Force--Request to Modify Recommended Remedy, B-422938.3, Feb. 5, 2025, at 4 (collecting citations); see also Van Ben Indus., Inc.; Survival Products, Inc.; Defense Logistics Agency--Recon., B-235431.4 et al., Jan. 29, 1990, at 3-4 (granting requests for reconsideration to modify prior recommendation to resolicit and terminate the current contract if appropriate and instead award bid preparation and protest costs where the agency established urgent and compelling needs for contract performance and the contract was already substantially completed).