The Small Business Administration (“SBA”) Office of Hearings and Appeals (“OHA”) has a very clear-cut set of guidelines for deciding appeals of contractor’s size protests in connection with set-asides or other size issues. In response to a size protest, an Area Office of SBA requests the protested concern to submit an SBA Form 355 (detailed information on the protested concern) and other information, including a response to a protest. Contractors are required to respond or are likely to suffer from their nonresponse. Size Appeal of Apogee Engineering, LLC, SBA No. SIZ-6078, Nov. 5, 2020, is an excellent example of the fate of a protested concern that failed to respond and was unable to successfully defend against a size appeal because of an adverse inference.
Continue reading at: Public Contracting Institute