PilieroMazza represented an appellant in its successful appeal of an adverse U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) size determinations.  This appeal confirmed important parameters regarding the application of the SBA's 8(a) joint venture regulations to joint ventures for non-8(a) contracts.

The appellant was a joint venture seeking to compete for a small business set-aside, not an 8(a) procurement. The Area Office reviewed the joint venture agreement under the regulations targeted to joint ventures performing 8(a) contracts. Because it found that a protégé firm brought little to a joint venture arrangement, it determined that the firm did not meet the joint venture requirements and thus, was not entitled to the joint venture exception from affiliation.  On appeal, the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) reversed the Area Office’s size determination and found that the appellant, an SBA-approved joint venture between an 8(a) protégé firm and mentor was a small business for the procurement.       

OHA has consistently held that 8(a) regulations do not apply to procurements that are outside the 8(a) program.  Further, because OHA had recently determined that it will not review mentor-protégé issues (See White Hawk/Todd, A Joint Venture , supra ), it stated that it had no authority to review the present case.