If a service-disabled veteran-owned small business has been denied verification for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Vendor Information Pages database, it cannot file a bid protest with the GAO challenging the VA’s award decision on a VA SDVOSB set-aside procurement—even if the company has a request for reconsideration pending with the VA’s Center for Veterans Enterprise.
So says the GAO in MICCI Imaging Construction Company, B-405654 (November 28, 2011), a decision in which the GAO held that a company that has been denied verification lacks “standing” to pursue a GAO bid protest of a VA SDVOSB set-aside to a competitor. Translating the legalese, the GAO’s message to non-verified companies is, “don’t waste our time.”