Ambulance Management Services, Ltd. d-b-a Trans-Care Ambulance (B-423804)

You might care.

Categories: Procurement integrity, IFB, interested party

Date: 2 December 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423804

Trans-Care Ambulance protests the award of a VA contract for nonemergency ambulance transportation services to Heartland Ambulance Service under a sealed-bid IFB. The VA received six bids; Heartland was the lowest at $18.45 million and Trans-Care was fifth-lowest at $31.05 million—with three intervening bidders between them.

Trans-Care's protest centered on an allegation that a Heartland employee attempted to bribe a VA official to secure a contract on a separate procurement. Trans-Care based this claim on a conversation between a Trans-Care employee and the VA official on the day of award. Trans-Care argued this alleged attempted bribery should have rendered Heartland nonresponsible and ineligible for award.

The VA submitted a declaration from the official in question, who acknowledged the conversation but affirmatively denied making any statement about an attempted bribe and stated that no Heartland employee had ever offered a bribe.

GAO dismissed the protest for lack of interested party standing. Under CICA, a protester must be an actual or prospective offeror whose direct economic interest would be affected by the award. Trans-Care, as the fifth-lowest bidder, would not be in line for award even if Heartland were found nonresponsible—three lower bidders whose eligibility Trans-Care did not challenge stood ahead. Trans-Care argued the "gravity" of the bribery allegation warranted an exception, but GAO noted that neither CICA nor its regulations provide for such an exception.

The protest is dismissed.

Digest

Protest that the agency made an improper affirmative responsibility determination for the awardee is dismissed where the protester is not an interested party to challenge the responsibility determination because the protester would not be in line for award if its protest were sustained.