PART 1833
PROTESTS, DISPUTES, AND APPEALS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SUBPART 1833.1 PROTESTS
1833.103 Protests to the agency.
1833.104 Protests to GAO.
1833.106 Solicitation provision and contract clause.
1833.106-70 Solicitation provision.
SUBPART 1833.2 DISPUTES AND APPEALS
1833.209 Suspected fraudulent claims.
1833.210 Contracting officer's authority.
1833.211 Contracting officer's decision.
1833.215 Contract clause.
PART 1833
PROTESTS, DISPUTES, AND APPEALS
1833.103 Protests to the agency.
(c) An independent review under the provision at 1852.233-70 is available as an alternative to a protest to the contracting officer, but not as an appeal of a protest decision. All independent reviews shall be conducted by the Deputy Associate Administrator for Procurement or designee. Such reviews are different from the Ombudsman Program described at 1815.7001.
(d) NASA shall summarily dismiss and take no further action upon any protest to the Agency if the substance of the protest is pending in judicial proceedings or the protester has filed a protest on the same acquisition with the United States General Accounting Office prior to receipt of an Agency protest decision.
(4) When a potential bidder or offeror submits an Agency protest to NASA to the contracting officer or alternatively requests an independent review, the decision of the contracting officer or the independent review official shall be final and is not subject to any appeal or reconsideration within NASA.
(f) Protests received at NASA offices or locations other than that of the cognizant contracting officer shall be immediately referred to the contracting officer for disposition (see 1833.106(a)). The contracting officer shall advise the Headquarters Office of the General Counsel (Code GK) of the receipt of the protest and the planned and actual disposition. This paragraph does not apply when the protester has requested an independent review under the provision at 1852.233-70.
1833.104 Protests to GAO.
The Associate Administrator for Procurement is the sole authority for deciding whether to defend a protest to GAO or to direct remedial action. NASA per-son-nel shall take no action to respond to or resolve any protest filed with GAO other than in accordance with this part and other guidance provided by NASA Headquarters.
(a)(2) The Headquarters Office of Pro-curement (Code HS) shall notify the con-tracting officer of protest receipt, and the contracting officer shall immediately give notice of the protest to all interested parties. Oral contracting officer notices shall be subsequently confirmed in writing, and the contracting officer shall also send a copy of the written confir-mation to Code HS, the Head-quar-ters Office of the General Coun-sel (Code GK), and the instal-lation Chief Counsel.
(3)(i) The contracting officer shall send four copies of the protest report, consisting of the protest file, the contracting officer's state-ment of facts, and a draft memoran-dum of law to Code GK within 20 days after GAO notifi-cation of protest receipt. Also include a copy of the file index in electronic format. The contracting officer shall retain a minimum of two copies of the protest file.
(ii) When an actual or prospective offeror requests access to a protest file, the contracting officer shall take the following actions, except (a) and (b) are not required if already accomplished:
(a) Send a copy of the protest file index to Code GK within 10 days of receipt of the request.
(b) Send a copy of the protest file to Code GK within 15 days of receipt of the request.
(c) With Code GK concurrence, send the protest file and index to the requesting party to ensure delivery within 20 days after receipt of the request.
(iv) Code GK shall submit the protest file to GAO.
(4)(i) Code GK shall provide copies of the report to the protestor(s), any intervenors, and the installation Chief Counsel.
(b)(1) The Associate Administrator for Procurement (Code HS) is the approval authority for contract award.
(c)(1) The contracting officer shall consult Code HS before terminating a protested contract.
(2) The Associate Administrator for Procurement (Code HS) is the approval authority for authorizing contract performance.
(f) The Agency may request GAO reconsi-deration of its decision within 10 days of issuance. If reconsideration is appropriate, the installation Chief Counsel shall forward a draft request for reconsideration, with any additional supporting documentation, to Code GK within 6 days of issuance of the GAO decision.
1833.106 Solicitation provision and contract clause.
(a) The contracting officer shall be the designated recipient of Agency protests in paragraph (a) of the provision at FAR 52.233-2.
1833.106-70 Solicitation provision.
Contracting officers shall insert the provision at 1852.233-70 in all solicitations.
Subpart 1833.2--Disputes and Ap-peals
1833.209 Suspected fraudulent claims.
The contracting officer shall report sus-pected fraudulent claims to the Headquar-ters Offices of Inspector General (Code W) and the General Counsel (Code G).
1833.210 Contracting officer's authority.
See NASA Policy Directive 2010.2 on use of Alternative Dispute Resolution.
1833.211 Contracting officer's decision.
(a)(4)(v) The Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals is the NASA Administrator's autho-rized representa-tive for hearing appeals of contracting officer final decisions. Accordingly, contract-ing officers shall cite that fact in the final decision letter, provide the Board's mailing address (Armed Servic-es Board of Contract Appeals, Skyline Six, 5109 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3208), and in-clude a notification that the Board's oper-at-ing procedures appear in Part 48, Code of Fed-eral Regulations, Chapter 2, Appendix A.
1833.215 Contract clause.
The contracting officer shall use the clause at FAR 52.233-1, Disputes, with its Alternate I whenever contin-ued perfor-mance is vital to national security, the public health and welfare, important agen-cy pro-grams, or other essential supplies or services whose timely reprocurement from other sources would be impracticable.