We successfully defended our client against both size and HUBZone protests, ensuring our client retained and performed the contract.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded our client a contract set aside for participants in the SBA’s HUBZone program. An unsuccessful offeror promptly filed two protests challenging the award: a size protest alleging that our client was affiliated with a proposed subcontractor under the identify of interest and ostensible subcontractor rules and a status protest alleging that our client did not meet the principal office and HUBZone residency requirements to be eligible for award. We successfully defended our client against both the size and HUBZone status protests, pointing out the protester’s improper application of the economic dependence test and refuting the ostensible subcontractor allegations.
To demonstrate that our client met the HUBZone residency requirement both at the time of bid and award, we painstakingly examined our client’s payroll and other records requested by the SBA. We showed that, although our client had hired several new employees to perform another contract, none of the newly hired employees had worked 40 or more hours at the time of bid, so they had not caused our client to drop below the HUBZone residency requirement.
We successfully defended our client against both the size and HUBZone status protests.
