Source: https://govt.westlaw.com/sbaoha/Document/I98c6f2a4d6cb11e8bc5b825c4b9add2e?originationContext=Search+Result&listSource=Search&viewType=FullText&navigationPath=Search%2Fv3%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2Fnavigation%2Fi0ad720f200000166d08a156b0d8a797a%3FstartIndex%3D1%26Nav%3DADMINDECISION_PUBLICVIEW%26contextData%3D(sc.Default)&rank=2&list=ADMINDECISION_PUBLICVIEW&transitionType=SearchItem&contextData=(sc.Search)&t_Method=tnc&t_querytext=PR(SIZ!)%26+DA(Last+3+Months)
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 05:53:22+00:00

Document:
*1 Richard B. O'Keeffe, Jr., Esq.
*1 Cara L. Lasley, Esq.
*1 Rebecca E. Pearson, Esq.
*1 Christopher G. Griesedieck, Jr., Esq.
*1 These consolidated appeals arise from a size determination concluding that the challenged firm, Alliant Solutions Partner, LLC (ASP), is not a small business, but that, because the subject task order was not set aside for small businesses, ASP remains eligible for award. On appeal, ASP contends that offerors were not required to recertify size for this task order, so the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Government Contracting, Area II (Area Office) should have dismissed the underlying size protest as untimely. The protester, DNT Solutions, LLC (DNT), also appeals the size determination, asserting that the Area Office clearly erred in finding that the procurement was not a small business set-aside and that ASP is eligible for award. Because the two appeals pertained to the same size determination and task order, the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) consolidated the appeals.
*1 OHA decides size determination appeals under the Small Business Act of 1958, 15 U.S.C. § 631 et seq., and 13 C.F.R. parts 121 and 134. ASP and DNT filed their respective appeals within fifteen days of receiving the size determination, so the appeals are timely.2 13 C.F.R. § 134.304(a). Accordingly, this matter is properly before OHA for decision.
*1 On September 25, 2017, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM) issued Task Order Request (TOR) No. GSC-QF0B-17-3315 for Database and Middleware Services.3 The TOR was issued to contract holders under the Alliant Small Business (ASB) Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). Proposals were due November 1, 2017.
*2 c. Awardee of the Master Contract: The offeror shall represent that it is an awardee of the master contract.
*2 d. Small Business Certifications: The offeror shall submit all small business certifications.
*2 The small business certifications (Section L.5.1.1) from each offeror will be considered as part of the Government's best value determination. This acquisition will have a strong preference for the specific Small Business concerns listed in FAR 19.203.
*2 The Government will evaluate the following pass/fail elements. A failure on any single Pass/Fail criteria will make the proposal ineligible for award, with no further evaluation of the technical and cost proposal conducted by the Government.
*2 c. The Government will reject any proposal where the offeror is not an awardee of the master contract.
*2 d. The Government will reject any proposal that does not provide evidence of the required small business certifications.
*2 Bullet d. ‘Small Business Certifications' states ‘the offeror shall submit all small business certifications.[’] We didn't see any specific small business representations and certifications in the TOR. A) Is the Government requesting that the offeror certify itself as a current ASB prime contract holder at the time of proposal submission or B) Is the Government requesting that the offeror recertify its small business size status at the time of the proposal submission?
*2 The answer to both questions A and B is “yes.” These are both requirements expressed in Bullets “c” and “d[”] of this section.
*2 Fair opportunity to compete has been provided to all [ASB] vendors, therefore this preference will remain. This is not a down-select.
*3 On February 14, 2018, the CO announced that ASP was the apparent awardee. On February 21, 2018, DNT, an unsuccessful offeror, filed a size protest challenging ASP's size. The CO forwarded the protest to the Area Office for review.
*3 [I]t was never my intent to initiate an official size re-certification (as described in the basic [ASB] ordering guide) for any offeror at the task order level under this procurement. The [TOR] required offerors to submit small business certifications verifying that they met the appropriate size standard for the procurement, which simply consisted of the pertinent small business size information pulled from the System for Award Management, which both [ASP and DNT] submitted in response to the TOR. An actual size re-certification imposed as a condition of task order award has very explicit language that must be incorporated in the solicitation per the terms and conditions of the [ASB] contract, and no such language was included in the [TOR]. Additionally, DNT's assertion that such a size re-certification was in fact a requirement relies on a two-part question and corresponding answer the Government provided in the TOR Amendment 1 Question and Answer document (see page 4 of the protest). I believe the “yes” answer to this question was an administrative error on the Government's part (i.e. we did not convey our response as clearly as we could have) but was also taken out-of-context and that DNT is simply twisting the definition of “certification” in this instance to suit their purposes. I would also submit that if an official size re-certification were truly the intent here, I would most certainly have amended the TOR to include the required information to make this abundantly clear which did not occur.
*3 DNT appealed Size Determination No. 2-2018-238 to OHA, and on April 19, 2018, OHA granted the appeal, vacated the size determination, and remanded the matter to the Area Office for further investigation. Size Appeal of DNT Solutions, LLC, SBA No. SIZ-5900 (2018). OHA explained that the Area Office improperly accepted “the CO's post hoc assertions” that recertification was not required, when the response to Question #6 “appear[ed] to do just that”. DNT Solutions, SBA No. SIZ-5900, at 6. OHA directed the Area Office to explore whether Question #6 and the CO's answer “amount to an amendment of the subject solicitation” and “whether any actual offerors recertified in reliance on the CO's purportedly erroneous answer.” Id. at 6-7. OHA further found that the Area Office did not adequately address the CO's assertion that the TOR omitted language that would have been included if recertification had been sought. OHA instructed the Area Office to “obtain the underlying [ASB] GWAC contract from the CO and determine whether that document requires explicit language for requesting recertification with a task order request”. Id. at 7.
*4 [Ordering Contracting Officers (OCOs)] have the discretion to require a re-representation of the [prime contractor's] size status as a condition of task order award. If an OCO intends to require a task order level size re-representation as a condition of task order award, they should explicitly make that assertion in the task order request by following the guidance in Appendix X.
*5 In the absence of clarity, and because the only use of the small business certification is to affect the best value determination, the Area Office concludes that the most logical interpretation is that recertification was required as otherwise there would be no purpose to requesting it. The [TOR] was limited to [ASB] GWAC holders; without a recertification requirement all firms would get the same benefit, effectively making it moot.
*5 On July 27, 2018, ASP appealed Size Determination No. 2-2018-272 to OHA. ASP asserts that the size determination must be vacated because the TOR did not require recertification, and as a consequence, DNT's size protest was untimely and should have been dismissed.
*6 On July 26, 2018, DNT appealed Size Determination No. 2-2018-272 to OHA. DNT maintains that the Area Office was correct in finding that the TOR required recertification and that ASP is not a small business. According to DNT, however, the Area Office erred in concluding that the procurement was not set aside for small businesses. In addition, the Area Office wrongly found that DNT did not recertify its size.
*9 On August 14, 2018, DNT responded to ASP's appeal. DNT highlights that ASP does not, and cannot, dispute that it is not a small business. (DNT Response at 1.) DNT reiterates its position that the TOR explicitly required recertification and that the CO confirmed that recertification was required in his response to Question #6. (Id.) Therefore, DNT's protest was timely filed within five business days after award of an order that required recertification.
*9 Under applicable regulations governing size appeals, a reply to a response is not permitted unless OHA so directs. 13 C.F.R. § 134.309(d). No such direction occurred here. Furthermore, while it is true that SBA's arguments on appeal differ to some extent from the reasoning of the Area Office, the ultimate conclusion that the TOR required recertification is not new, and thus does not merit a reply. Accordingly, ASP's Motion is DENIED.
*10 As the Appellants, DNT and ASP have the burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, all elements of their respective appeals. Specifically, Appellants must prove that the size determination is based upon a clear error of fact or law. 13 C.F.R. § 134.314. OHA will disturb an area office's size determination only if, after reviewing the record, the administrative judge has a definite and firm conviction that the area office erred in making its key findings of fact or law. Size Appeal of Taylor Consultants, Inc., SBA No. SIZ-4775, at 11 (2006).
*10 The key question presented here is whether the TOR required ASB contractors to recertify size for the instant task order. The issue is critical because it is well-settled that a size protest against an order under a long-term contract is timely only if the CO requested recertification in conjunction with that order. 13 C.F.R. § 121.1004(a)(3)(iii); Size Appeal of Unissant, Inc., SBA No. SIZ-5871, at 4-5 (2017); Size Appeal of Platinum Bus. Servs., LLC, SBA No. SIZ-5800, at 5 (2016); Size Appeal of Oxford Gov't Consulting, LLC, SBA No. SIZ-5732, at 2 (2016). In the instant case, I agree with ASP that the TOR clearly did not request, or require, recertification. As a result, DNT's protest was untimely and should have been dismissed. OHA will vacate a size determination issued in response to an untimely protest. E.g., Size Appeal of Quantum Prof'l Servs., Inc., SBA No. SIZ-5207 (2011), recons. denied, SBA No. SIZ-5225 (2011) (PFR). Accordingly, ASP's appeal must be granted and Size Determination No. 2-2018-272 vacated. Vacating the size determination renders DNT's allegations of error in that size determination moot. DNT's appeal must therefore be dismissed. See 13 C.F.R. § 134.316(c) (OHA will not adjudicate matters which have “become moot”).
*10 As ASP observes in its appeal, the Area Office made numerous factual findings in Size Determination No. 2-2018-272 which indicate that the TOR did not require recertification. The Area Office noted, first, that the TOR contained no language calling for a “new” size certification or a “recertification”. Section II.C, supra. Further, the Area Office found, any recertification request was “not explicit” and indeed was not “stated anywhere” in the TOR. Id. The CO informed the Area Office that he did not intend to request recertification, and that “[a]n actual size re-certification imposed as a condition of task order award has very explicit language that must be incorporated in the solicitation”. Section II.B, supra. Such language was absent from the TOR. Id. In addition, the Area Office determined, all relevant parties comported themselves as if recertification were not required. According to the Area Office, neither ASP nor DNT recertified with their respective offers. Section II.C, supra. The CO likewise did not reject either proposal for failure to recertify, notwithstanding that the TOR had warned that “[t]he Government will reject any proposal that does not provide evidence of the required small business certifications.” The Area Office thus found that “[i]f ... the TOR actually required recertification, both firms' offers should have been rejected.” Id.
*11 Several of the above facts are strong evidence that the TOR did not require recertification. Under a long-term, multiple-award contract, the decision to request recertification for a particular order is reserved to the discretion of the CO. See generally 13 C.F.R. § 121.404(a)(1)(i); Size Appeals of Safety and Ecology Corp., SBA SIZ-5177, at 22 (2010). As a result, OHA affords considerable weight to the CO's view as to whether recertification was requested. Size Appeal of Advanced Mgmt. Strategies Group, Inc./ ReefPoint Group, LLC, SBA No. SIZ-5905, at 6 (2018); Size Appeal of CodeLynx, LLC, SBA No. SIZ-5720, at 6 (2016). Here, both the CO's statement and his actions during the procurement support the conclusion that recertification was not required. The Area Office's findings that the TOR did not expressly require recertification, and that any recertification request was “not clearly stated” and “not explicit”, are also strong indications that there was no request for recertification. SBA regulations at 13 C.F.R. § 121.404 (g)(3)(v) state that a recertification request must be made ““explicitly”, and the Ordering Guide applicable to the ASB contracts likewise contemplated that “[i]f [the CO] intends to require [recertification], [the CO] should explicitly make that assertion in the task order request ....” Section II.B, supra. The absence of language requesting a “new” certification or a ““recertification” is also significant. According to SBA regulations, “[a] concern that represents itself as a small business and qualifies as small at the time of the initial offer ... is considered to be a small business throughout the life of that contract ... [and] for each order issued against the contract ... unless a contracting officer requests a new size certification in connection with a specific order.” 13 C.F.R. § 121.404(g). The regulations elsewhere use the term “recertification” when referring to a new certification. Id. The fact that the TOR did not utilize terminology normally associated with recertification again suggests that recertification was not required.
*11 Apart from the factual findings in Size Determination No. 2-2018-272, the procedural history of this case further bolsters the notion that the TOR did not require recertification. In its original size determination, No. 2-2018-238, the Area Office concluded, based on the language of the TOR and the CO's statement, that recertification was not required. Section II.B, supra. OHA then remanded the matter to the Area Office with instructions to reexamine two issues: (1) whether the CO's response to Question #6 “amount[ed] to an amendment of the subject solicitation”; and (2) whether the TOR omitted language that would have been included if recertification had been sought, as the CO had asserted in his statement. Id. On remand, the Area Office found that the response to Question #6 did not constitute an amendment to the TOR, and noted that the Q&A document was never incorporated into the TOR. Section II.C, supra. In fact, the TOR was amended after the Q&A document was issued without any change in the pertinent language. Id. During the remand, the Area Office also obtained a copy of the ASB contract and the accompanying Ordering Guide. Section II.B, supra. Consistent with the CO's statement, the Ordering Guide includes a sample provision, “Notice of Order Size Rerepresentation (OSR) at the Order Level”, which may be added to a task order solicitation “to require a task order level size re-representation as a condition of task order award”. Section II.B, supra. The instant TOR did not contain this provision. Section II.A, supra.
*12 Against this array of evidence, the only rationale offered by the Area Office for reversing its position in Size Determination No. 2-2018-238 and concluding that the TOR did require recertification was that “otherwise there would be no purpose” to the certification information requested in the TOR. Section II.C, supra. As ASP correctly observes, however, the Area Office's reasoning is flawed because § M.1 of the TOR stated that certain categories of small businesses would enjoy a “strong preference” in the source selection. More specifically, § M.1 stated that the types of small businesses identified at FAR 19.203 (i.e., concerns participating in the 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, and WOSB programs) would be preferred over other types of small businesses in determining best value. Section II.A, supra. The CO confirmed this evaluation preference in his response to Question #40. Id. Contrary to the size determination, then, the certification information sought in the TOR was not a request for recertification, but rather enabled the procuring agency to ascertain which, if any, ASB prime contractors were eligible for the evaluation preference at § M.1. The Area Office therefore clearly erred in assuming that recertification must have been requested or required.
*12 In their respective pleadings, SBA and DNT argue that provisions in the TOR directing that offerors submit “small business certifications” and “evidence of the required small business certifications” should be understood as a request for recertification. Section II.A, supra. The principal problem with these arguments is that the TOR, by itself, simply is not clear as to whether it was seeking recertification at the task order level, or whether such language instead was requesting evidence of existing, contract-level certifications. The TOR's lack of clarity is illustrated by the Area Office's own inconsistent findings. Thus, in its first size determination, the Area Office concluded that recertification was not required, and in its second size determination, the Area Office found that recertification was required but was not explicit, based on the same TOR provisions that SBA and DNT now assert were a request for recertification. Similarly, in Size Appeal of DNT Solutions, LLC, SBA No. SIZ-5900 (2018), OHA did not find the language of the TOR conclusive, but rather remanded the matter for further investigation of the surrounding factual circumstances. Section II.B, supra. Viewing the language of the TOR in connection with the remainder of the record, including the factual findings in Size Determination No. 2-2018-272, it is evident that the TOR did not seek recertification.
* 13 SBA and DNT also point to the CO's response to Question #6 in contending that the TOR did request recertification. The CO explained in his statement, however, that the response to Question #6 was “an administrative error”, perhaps stemming from the convoluted phrasing of the original question. Section II.B, supra. Moreover, the Area Office determined in Size Determination No. 2-2018-272, and no party disputes, that the response to Question #6 was never incorporated into the TOR. Section II.C, supra. This latter point is significant because OHA remanded the first size determination, in part, for the Area Office to investigate whether the response constituted an amendment of the TOR. Section II.B, supra. Given, therefore, that the response to Question #6 was not a solicitation amendment, and was not actually treated as a request to recertify by the CO or by ASB contractors, the response to Question #6 does not establish that the TOR requested or required recertification. Size Appeal of Metters Indus., Inc., SBA No. SIZ-5456, at 10 (2013) (questions and answers, which were not incorporated into the task order solicitation, did not determine whether recertification was required).
*13 Under SBA regulations, a size protest on a long-term contract may be filed within five business days after any of three events: when the contract is initially awarded; when an option is exercised; or when there is a request for recertification in connection with an individual order. 13 C.F.R. § 121.1004(a)(3); Platinum, SBA No. SIZ-5800, at 5; CodeLynx, SBA No. SIZ-5720, at 6. None of these situations was present here. ASP most recently recertified for the ASB contract in 2014, and the instant TOR did not require recertification. Therefore, DNT's protest, filed in February 2018, was untimely.
*13 ASP has demonstrated that Size Determination No. 2-2018-272 is clearly erroneous, as DNT's size protest was untimely and should have been dismissed. Accordingly, ASP's appeal is GRANTED, and Size Determination No. 2-2018-272 is VACATED. In light of this outcome, DNT's appeal is moot and is therefore DISMISSED. This is the final decision of the Small Business Administration. See 13 C.F.R. § 134.316(d).
This decision was initially issued under a protective order. Pursuant to 13 C.F.R. § 134.205, OHA afforded counsel an opportunity to file a request for redactions if desired. No redactions were requested, and OHA now issues the entire decision for public release.
The CO issued an amended version of the TOR on October 18, 2017. Unless otherwise indicated, citations are to the amended TOR.

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