Appeal of an SBA Area Office order dismissing a size a protest as non-specific is denied. OHA explained that a size protest must be supported by specific evidence or information; a mere allegation that a concern is not small doesn’t cut it. Here, the protester provided no evidence to support its contention that the challenged concern was affiliated with a business that exceeded the applicable size standard.
The U.S. Coast Guard awarded a contract for copper anodes to Allied Marine Services, LLC. The contract was set aside for small businesses. An unsuccessful offeror, Wilson Walton International, filed a size protest, alleging that Allied was affiliated with its parent company and other firms, and that together these affiliates exceeded the applicable size standard. The SBA Area Office dismissed the protest as non-specific, reasoning that Wilson did not provide any supporting evidence to show that Allied’s affiliates exceeded the applicable size standard. Wilson appealed the dismissal to SBA’s Office of Hearing and Appeals.
OHA affirmed the dismissal. Under SBA regulations, in order to make a proper size protest, some basis for the belief or allegation must be given in the protest. In this case, Wilson provided no evidence or reason to believe that Allied’s alleged affiliates exceeded the size standard. While the protest vaguely referred to published information about employee counts, Wilson did not identify the source of the information.
Wilson also argued on appeal that Allied was ineligible for award because it would not provide the product of a small business manufactured in the United States. But OHA refused to consider this argument because it was not raised in the initial protest.