B-400430, PR Newswire Association, LLC, September 26, 2008
Decision
Matter of: PR Newswire Association, LLC
Brian
Taylor for the protester.
Daniel Selnick, for Business Wire, Inc., an intervenor.
Michael I. Goulding, Esq., Department of Health and Human Services, for the agency.
Paul E. Jordan, Esq., and John M. Melody, Esq., Office of
the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
DIGEST
Agency was not required to provide
actual notice of solicitation to incumbent contractor; posting of solicitation
on FedBizOpps Internet site provided constructive notice to all potential
offerors, including protester.
DECISION
PR Newswire Association, LLC
protests the award of a contract to Business Wire, Inc. under request for
proposals (RFP) No.
PR Newswire is
The jurisdiction of our Office is established by the bid
protest provisions of the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984, 31 U.S.C. sections
3551-3556 (2000), amended by the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375, sect. 326, 118
Stat. 1811 (2004). Our role in resolving
bid protests is to ensure that the statutory requirements for full and open
competition are met. Pacific
Photocopy and Research Servs., B-278698, B‑278698.3,
PR Newswire asserts that the agency was required to
provide it actual notice of the RFP’s issuance.
However, it cites no authority for this proposition, and we are aware of
none. As noted by the agency, and
conceded by the protester (Comments at 1), for proposed contract actions--such
as this RFP--in excess of $25,000, the agency is required to publish a synopsis
and solicitation information on the government point of entry (GPE), accessed
through FedBizOpps. Federal Acquisition
Regulation (FAR) sections 2.101, 501(a) and 5.102; see 41 U.S.C.
sect. 416(a)(7) (2000) (electronic solicitation publication on GPE meets
requirements for accessibility of notice).
Since FedBizOpps has been expressly designated by statute and regulation
as the official public medium for providing notice of contracting actions by
federal agencies, and
Our conclusion is not changed by the protester’s alleged
unsuccessful attempts to obtain solicitation information from agency
personnel. In this regard, PR Newswire
asserts that, as it performed its contract work, its staff made “repeated
inquiries” of
Likewise, the fact that the agency furnished actual notice to Business Wire provides no valid basis for protest. Again, the agency furnished legally sufficient notice to all potential offerors, and the fact that the agency also provided Business Wire with actual notice pursuant to its proposed corrective action, in response to the earlier protest, did not render that notice inadequate.
The protest is denied.
Gary L. Kepplinger
General Counsel
[1]
The protester’s status as the incumbent contractor also had no effect on the
agency’s notice responsibilities. At one
time--but no longer--the FAR required that “bids shall be solicited from . . .
the previously successful bidder” or offeror for the requirement. See (superseded) FAR sections 14.205-4
and 15.403. The current FAR does not
require such notice to incumbent contractors; thus,