SGL-HCI Joint Venture (B-423364)

You should not care.

Category: Past performance, jurisdiction

Date: 28 April 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423364

SGL-HCI Joint Venture (SHJV), a small disadvantaged business, protested the Army’s award of a logistics support order to Red River Science and Technology, LLC, under RFP No. W519TC-23-R-0088. SHJV alleged the Army unfairly evaluated its past performance, citing bias and alleged reprisal relating to prior task order performance at Aberdeen Proving Ground. SHJV claimed that false and retaliatory past performance information—now purportedly under IG investigation—tainted its confidence rating, leading to the loss of a $68 million logistics contract.

However, GAO dismissed the protest under 4 CFR § 21.11(b), as the same solicitation was the subject of pending litigation at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC) filed by a different protester, Gemini Tech Services. GAO reaffirmed its long-standing policy of declining jurisdiction in parallel cases to avoid conflicting outcomes—even where the issues differ slightly or the parties are not the same.

SHJV argued that the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) mandates concurrent jurisdiction and bars GAO from dismissing its case. However, GAO noted SHJV’s cited statutes were misquoted and even nonexistent, and reiterated that CICA’s plain language supports nonexclusivity of remedies—not mandatory concurrency. GAO emphasized that its dismissal does not bar SHJV from refiling a protest should the COFC case concludes without resolving SHJV’s claims on the merits.

Digest

Protest is dismissed where matter involved is the subject of litigation before a court of competent jurisdiction.