A recent Court of Federal Claims case, Diversified Maintenance Systems, Inc., December 4, 2006, reinforces the necessity for contracting officers to refer all protests regarding a company’s HUBZone status to the Small Business Administration (SBA). In Diversified, the agency set aside a procurement for HUBZone businesses only. All but two of the seven offerors were disqualified for various reasons. The agency awarded a contract to Cadence Contract Services and the other offeror, Diversified, immediately submitted a protest to the contracting officer, challenging the HUBZone status of the awardee. 

Diversified’s protest alleged that the awardee’s office in Utah was not located in a certified HUBZone and that Utah’s records did not list a HUBZone company by that name at that address.  The contracting officer denied the protest, stating that the awardee’s address in New York was in a HUBZone and that he had verified the HUBZone eligibility of the offeror at the New York address by checking the SBA’s website. Diversified then filed its protest with the Court of Federal Claims. After the litigation began, the government conceded to the Court that the contracting officer had failed to submit the offeror’s protest to the SBA, as required. Consequently, the government requested that the protest be submitted to the SBA. Continue Reading A HUBZone Protest Must Be Referred to the SBA