Chaedrol GAO Protest Log 20240905: String King (AI)

String King Lacrosse, LLC—B-420935.12

You should care.

Category: Reimbursement of protest costs

Date: August 16, 2024

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-420935.12

In this case, String King Lacrosse, LLC protested HHS’s award of disposable medical isolation gowns for use during public national emergencies and pandemic events to New York Embroidery Studio, a women-owned small business in New York. The protest alleged unreasonable evaluation of technical capability, similar experience, and price, among other concerns. In October 2023, HHS filed a notice of corrective action and request for dismissal, saying it would reevaluate offers, potentially engage in discussions, and undertake “other actions, as deemed necessary and appropriate by the agency.” GAO dismissed.

A mere ten days later, String King filed an agency-level protest complaining HHS had not taken corrective action. “Between November 2023 and February 2024, the requester made multiple attempts to contact the agency regarding the status of its agency-level protest and implementation of the corrective action; the agency acknowledged receipt of the status requests in January 2024 and informed the requester that it anticipated an update concerning the procurement that same month.” Meanwhile HHS took corrective action by issuing an amendment revising RFP terms, which GAO called “reasonably prompt,” and String King protested this amendment in February 2024.

String King then requested reimbursement of protest costs, relying on GAO’s Louisiana Clearwater decision. Describing Clearwater, the test for whether protest costs be reimbursed, GAO writes, “Where an agency implements corrective action that fails to address a meritorious issue raised in the protest that prompted the corrective action, such that the protester is put to the expense of subsequently protesting the very same procurement deficiency, the agency action, even though promptly proposed, has precluded the timely economical resolution of the protest.”

Pace String King’s claim it was protesting the same matter twice owing to agency’s failed corrective actions, GAO find String King’s first protest was of the agency’s evaluation and other matters and its second protest was of the issuance of an RFP amendment implementing the agency’s correction action. Therefore, any “alleged procurement deficiencies from the October 2023 and February 2024 protests are thus distinct from one another, and the agency's actions have not precluded the timely, economical resolution of the protest. “ Therefore, GAO found “there was no undue delay in HHS's corrective action and the requester has not otherwise had to protest the same procurement deficiency multiple times," the tribunal did not need to “address whether either protest was clearly meritorious to resolve the question of whether we should recommend reimbursement of protest costs.”

Digest

Request for reimbursement of protest costs associated with multiple protests is denied where the agency took corrective action prior to the deadline for the agency report in each protest.