GAO Sees Flaws in Eyeglasses Contract In a ruling that exposed the apparent incompetence of a contracting officer, the General Accounting Office faulted the Veterans Affairs Department for its decision not to compete a procurement for eyeglasses as a small business set-aside. In its decision released Aug. 8, GAO said VA’s procedures in the case were “seriously flawed.” The contract, to provide eyeglasses for VA facilities in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, was solicited as a full and open competition, although two previous similar contracts had been small business set-asides. A small firm, Rochester Optical Manufacturing Co., protested that at least two small businesses were available to bid, so the contract should have been set aside under the “rule of two.” Evidence indicated that the contracting officer did not know how to conduct a search of Pro-Net, SBA’s registry of small businesses. She searched Pro-Net only for optical goods stores in Tennessee, not in the two other states. She searched for firms with revenues under “$6.0,” rather than $6,000,000. “As a result, it should have come as no surprise that no small business concern was found to have had an average annual gross revenue amount not exceeding ‘$6.00,’” GAO commented. After that search, the contracting officer declared the solicitation full and open. In sustaining Rochester’s protest, GAO said, “Unless the contracting officer now can reasonably determine, after conducting a proper market survey, that there is not a reasonable expectation of receiving offers from at least two responsible small businesses at fair market prices, the contracting officer should cancel the RFP and re-issue it as a set-aside for small businesses.” The case is Rochester Optical Manufacturing Company, B-292247.