About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

B-182149 1 (1979-03-02)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabjml0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 


               COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES
                          WASHINGTON. D.C. 20548.



B-182149                                            March 2, 1979





General Research Corporation

Santa Barbara, California  93105            9

     AT TN:    Mr. William L. Sargeant
               Gover ment Contracts Counsel

Dear Mr. Sargeant:

     This refers to the protest of Public Safety Systems, Inc. (PSSI),
of tne award of a contract by the city of Los Angeles to the National
Aeronautics and Space AdL-Linistra Lion pursuant to a grant received by
the city from the Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance
Administration. The contract in,.question was aarded on July 15, 1974.
A response on tie issues raised by the protest has been withield for
a ntuber of reasons, including a question as to the jurisdiction of
the General Accounting Office to consider the matter and, most recently,
because of the issue raised in the protest concerning the propriety
of NASAI's participation in the mtter.

     in light of the tme that has elapsed since tne protest was
originally filed in our Office, we xvould like to briefly advise
you of our views on each of tne issues raised and to inform you
concerning what future action we plan to take on the matter. We
do not plan to reiterate the facts and circxrstances involved in
thiis case, witha which you are quite familiar.

     One of the issues raised concerned an organizational conflict
of interest question. The issue arose because of the involvement of
the Jet Propulsion Iaoratory, an instmm'entality of NASA, in an
earlier phase of the project undertaken by the city of Los Angeles.
We believe ihat, in the context of procureamnt by a Federal grantee,
the concept of fundamental fairness as reflected in regulations and
cases involving direct Federal procurement, requires prior notice to
a contractor that its acceptance of the first contract would bar it
on grounds of organizational conflict of interest from competing for
an ensuing contract. We cannot concur that the competitor in this
case snould nave been precluded from participation in the proc eaent






             00

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most