Area Office Misapplied SBA Definition of Joint Venture to Procurement Conducted Under Diplomatic Security Act; SBA No. SIZ-5825, Size Appeal of Olgoonik Diversified Services LLC

Appeal of the area office’s determination that the appellant was not small for a procurement for construction services at the Baghdad Embassy Compound is granted, where the appellant met the solicitation’s de facto joint venture requirement as defined in the Diplomatic Security Act and where the area office erred in relying on an inapplicable definition of joint venture in finding appellant was affiliated with its sister companies and therefore not an eligible small business; and where the area office erred in concluding the appellant’s reliance on the experience and resources of sister companies owned by the same Alaska Native Corporation violated the ostensible subcontractor rule, where the affiliates were not subcontractors and would have no role in the performance of the contract, where a business concern owned by an ANC is not considered affiliated with other concerns owned by the same ANC, and where an ANC’s exercise of common management to transfer personnel among its sister companies is a clear exception to affiliation.