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B-400552 1 (2008-11-05)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadaqe0001 and id is 1 raw text is: I G A 0Comptroller General L LA Accountability * Integrity * Reliability of the United States United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 Decision Matter of: Asia Resource Partners K.K. File: B-400552 Date: November 5, 2008 Michael Hertz for the protester. Maj. LaChandra C. Richardson, Department of the Air Force, for the agency. Paul N. Wengert, Esq., Glenn G. Wolcott, Esq., and Ralph 0. White, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest arguing that agency acted improperly when it excluded offeror from competition for contracts at the base where the wife of the offeror's president serves as a contracting officer is denied because the agency decision was a reasonable attempt to avoid the appearance of impropriety. DECISION Asia Resource Partners K.K., of Tokyo, Japan, protests its exclusion from competition by the Department of the Air Force under request for proposals (RFP) No. FA5270-08-R-0015 for operation and maintenance of a liquid propane gas (LPG) distribution system, and RFP No. FA5270-08-R-0047 for fuel storage tank maintenance. The protester argues that the Air Force has improperly concluded that the firm's participation in these procurements creates an appearance of impropriety, and that excluding the firm from these competitions is unreasonable. We deny the protest. This protest relates to two solicitations issued by the 18th Contracting Squadron, Kadena Air Base, Japan. It raises the question of whether a contracting agency may properly exclude from consideration proposals submitted by an offeror whose top executive is married to an agency procurement official within the same contracting organization, on the basis that an award to that offeror would create the appearance of impropriety. For the reasons explained below, we believe that the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) authorizes the actions taken here, and that the Air Force reasonably exercised this authority.

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