Jim Swistowicz--Designated Employee Agent
Highlights
Jim Swistowicz--Designated Employee Agent, President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 1808, protests the Department of the Army's issuance of request for proposals (RFP) No. W56HZV-08-R-A0005, for base support, supply, and maintenance operations at Sierra Army Depot, Herlong, California. Mr. Swistowicz asserts that this procurement--a public-private competition under Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-76--is improper because OMB is statutorily prohibited from requiring an agency to prepare for, undertake, continue, or complete a public-private competition.
B-400101, Jim Swistowicz--Designated Employee Agent, July 7, 2008
Decision
Matter of: Jim Swistowicz--Designated Employee Agent
Jim Swistowicz, Designated Employee Agent, for the protester.
Vera Meza, Esq., U.S. Army Materiel Command, for the agency.
Paul E. Jordan, Esq., and John M. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
DIGEST
Protester, Designated Employee Agent for federal labor union, is not an interested party with standing to challenge agency's decision to conduct public-private competition under Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, where the competition was initiated prior to
DECISION
Jim Swistowicz--Designated Employee Agent, President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 1808, protests the Department of the Army's issuance of request for proposals (RFP) No. W56HZV-08-R-A0005, for base support, supply, and maintenance operations at Sierra Army Depot,
We dismiss the protest on the basis that the protester is not an interested party.
This is a recompetition of an A-76 procurement conducted in 2000, resulting in award to a most efficient organization composed of some 91 federal and 41 contractor employees. On
In addition to the referenced provisions (and other provisions not relevant here), section 326 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, codified at 31 U.S.C. sect. 3551(2), amended the definition of an interested party eligible to file a protest with our Office to include:
(ii) any one individual who, for the purpose of representing the Federal employees engaged in the performance of the activity or function for which the public-private competition is conducted in a protest under this subchapter that relates to such public-private competition, has been designated as the agent of the Federal employees by a majority of such employees.
31 U.S.C. sect. 3551(2)(B)(ii).
Mr. Swistowicz states that he has been designated as agent by a majority of the federal employees affected by the agency's actions. Protest at 1. However, while this fact would be sufficient for Mr. Swistowicz to meet the above definition, under a provision entitled APPLICABILITY, the act identifies the actions to which the amended provision extends as follows:
(1) a protest or civil action that challenges final selection of the source of performance of an activity or function of a Federal agency that is made pursuant to a study initiated under Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76 on or after January 1, 2004; and
(2) any other protest or civil action that relates to a public-private competition initiated under Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, or to a decision to convert a function performed by Federal employees to private sector performance without a competition under Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, on or after the date of the enactment of this Act.
Pub. L. No. 110-181, sect. 326(d), 122 Stat. at 63.
As indicated above, the public announcement date or start date for the current competition was
Mr. Swistowicz acknowledges that section 326(a) of the act, as amended, limits his ability to protest competitions initiated before
The protest is dismissed.
Gary L. Kepplinger
General Counsel
[1] For the record, although the protester does not rely on the earlier-enacted Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2008 (enacted as Division D of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, Pub. L No. 110-161, 121 Stat. 1844, 2029-30 (2008)), the protester is not an interested party under an analysis of this statute either. The start date of this procurement preceded enactment of the Consolidated Appropriations Act as well.
[2] Mr. Swistowicz requests that we declare that all of his protest issues will be considered timely filed if brought following the source selection. Comments at 2. We will address the timeliness of any issues raised in a subsequent protest at the time of that protest.