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Jan 30, 2025
By Franklin Turner 

On January 8, 2025, in UNICA-BPA JV, LLC, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained a protester’s challenge to its elimination from the competition for failing to have an active System for Award Management (SAM) registration at the time of its initial proposal submission. The GAO sustained the protest because the protester’s registration was in fact active at the time it submitted its final proposal revision (FPR) even though it was inactive at the time of initial proposal submission. The facts of the case are straightforward:
  • The acquisition at issue was a Department of Homeland Security (Agency) procurement for dormitory management support services. The solicitation was issued on November 29, 2023.
  • The protester timely submitted its proposal by the January 2, 2024 deadline and was subsequently notified of its exclusion from the competitive range on April 25, 2024. The protester filed a protest based on its exclusion, which prompted the Agency to take corrective action and readmit the protester to the competition.
  • On May 30, 2024, the Agency opened discussions with the protester and later amended the solicitation. The protester timely submitted its FPR on July 10, 2024. The following month, on August 6, 2024, DHS issued a pre-award notice that identified the protester as the apparently successful offeror.
  • A disappointed bidder then filed a protest in which it argued that the protester could not be awarded the contract because it did not have a SAM registration at the time of initial proposal submission. The Agency agreed and rescinded the pre-award notice on August 23, 2024. Several weeks later, on September 26, 2024, the Agency excluded the protester from the competition.        ACCESS FULL ARTICLE
Experts
  • Franklin Turner
    Partner, McCarter & English
    Mr. Turner is a Partner and Co-Leader of the Government Contracts & Export Controls Practice Group. He is an innovative business lawyer with significant experience resolving complex government contracts issues for a broad array of companies – ranging from multinational Fortune 100 corporat...
    See Full Bio
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