B-310398.4, World Communications Center, Inc.--Costs, January 16, 2008
Decision
Matter of: World Communications Center, Inc.--Costs
Michael J. Murphy, Esq., Murphy Law Firm, P.A., for the protester.
James Hicks, Esq., and Sheryl Butler Jamison, Esq., Department of Justice, for the agency.
Jonathan L. Kang, Esq., and Ralph O. White, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
DIGEST
GAO recommends that agency reimburse protester’s costs of filing and pursuing earlier protests where agency does not contest the protester’s request, and where the record shows that the agency did not take prompt corrective action in the face of a clearly meritorious protest.
DECISION
World Communications Center, Inc. (WCC) requests that our Office recommend that it be reimbursed the costs of filing and pursuing its protests of the award of a sole-source contract to NAL Research Corporation for satellite trackers under solicitation STTS-1168, issued by the Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
We recommend that the DEA reimburse WCC its reasonable costs of filing and pursuing its protests.
In
its earlier protests, B-310398 and B-310398.2, WCC argued that the DEA
conducted an improper sole-source procurement, and wrongly denied WCC an opportunity
to compete for the solicitation requirements by refusing to test its satellite trackers
for compatibility with the DEA’s tracking system. The agency produced a report responding to the
protest allegations, and requested that our Office either deny the protests or
dismiss them based on the agency’s argument that WCC was not an interested
party. Our Office convened a conference
call during which the GAO attorney assigned to the protest identified concerns
regarding the agency’s rationale for the sole-source award, and indicated that
the record as produced by the agency did not support the reasonableness of the
sole-source award. The GAO attorney also
requested additional information from the DEA to supplement its report. Subsequently, however, the DEA advised our
Office that it would take corrective action by terminating the award to NAL and
canceling the solicitation. Because the
agency’s corrective action rendered the protest academic, we dismissed the protests
on
Where an agency takes corrective action in response to a
protest, our Office may recommend that a protester be reimbursed the costs of
filing and pursuing that protest. Bid
Protest Regulations, 4 C.F.R. sect. 21.8(e) (2007).
Such recommendations are generally based upon a concern that the agency
has taken longer than necessary to initiate corrective action in the face of a
clearly meritorious protest, thereby causing the protester to expend
unnecessary time and resources to make further use of the protest process in order
to obtain relief. See, e.g.,
AAR Aircraft Servs.-Costs, B-291670.6,
Here,
the DEA states that it “does not contest [WCC’s] request for reimbursement.”[1] Letter from DEA to GAO,
We recommend that the agency reimburse WCC its costs of filing and pursuing its protests.
Gary L. Kepplinger
General Counsel
[1] The agency also stated in its letter that it “does
reserve the right to negotiate the final amount of costs after the Protester
submits an itemized cost claim.” Letter
from DEA to GAO,