Latvian Connection LLC Shareefa Complex 5th Floor Kuwait City, Kuwait Tel: 001 965 5012 2072

August 16, 2013 BY REGISTERED EMAIL

General Counsel Government Accounting Office 441 G Street, NW Washington DC 20548 Email: Protests@gao.gov Attn: Procurement Law Control Group, Room 1139

RE: Pre-Award Protest against the ARMY CORP OF ENGINEERS RFQ W912ER-13-R-0025 JOB ORDER CONTRACT FOR REMOVING THE CLAUSE 252.236-7010 PREFERENCE FOR US FIRMS
Dear Procurement Law Group: Latvian Connection General Trading and Construction LLC, ( LC LLC), Shareefa Complex, 5th Floor, Kuwait City, Kuwait, tel: [001 965 5012 2072]. Email: [keven.barnes@LatvianConnectionLLC.com] , a SAMS Registered company ( DUNS 830587791 and CAGE 5GLB3, with a LOCAL office in the Middle East in Kuwait, DUNS 534749622 and CAGE SGM59 submits this PreAward Protest against the U.S. Armys Army Corp of Engineers Middle East Office, Winchester, Virginia offices solicitation ( Exhibit 1 ).Kuwait Job Order Contract, RFQ W912ER-13-R-0025. First let me start by saying that Latvian Connection LLC is owned and operated by a retired USAF MSgt who served in Iraq and during September 2001, and has served in the USAF in England, Turkey, Iraq and has been part of the USAF Active Duty, Reserves, and California Air National Guard; served in Iraq with the Defense Contract Management Agency in total over 28 years. I was in Iraq in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 either working with DCMA or with DoD companies supporting Operation Enduring Freedom and I also served as an Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense in contracting. So, when I say that the USAF are violating Federal Acquisition Regulations, DFARS Defense Acquisition Regulations, Laws, and U.S. Business Statutes ( Exhibit 3 ) and the Presidential Memo and their own Memos ( Exhibit 10 ), and I can say that with authority as I have been writing GAO Level Protests to the GAO since 2010 to bring to light the fact that the Army, Air Force, Navy, U.S. State Department and the Army Corp of Engineers (USACE )are violating the contract laws of the United States and steering contracts to foreign companies and are not excluding all foreign competition for solicitations as required by law for purchases, construction, and services that are overseas and giving PREFERENCE TO U.S. FIRMS. USACE is wrongly attempting to limit the competitive advantage of U.S. Firms on Military Construction and removed DFARS 252.236-7010 OVERSEAS MILITARY CONSTRUCTION PREFERENCE FOR U.S. FIRMS( Exhibit AMENDMENT 001) and the requirement that Garrison Commander approval be given for any Task Order over $ 500,000 when there is no such limitation in the Federal Acquisition Regulations, or DFARS, and in fact PGI 236.273, and is in direct violation of the Economy Act that doesnt require such authorization within Department of Defense agencies such as the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the U.S. Army ( Exhibit 3) Construction in foreign countries directs the USACE in conducting this solicitation so that U.S. Firms can compete and perform. The RFQ FAILS to site DFARS 252.236-7010, Overseas Military Construction Preference for U.S. Firms and at that evaluation from firms that do not qualify as U.S. will have 20% added to their offer. (b) Evaluation. Offers from firms that do not qualify as United States firms will be evaluated by adding 20 percent to the offer. The solicitation is defective in that is fails to cite DFARS 252.7013 Requirement for competition opportunity for American Steel Manufacturers, and DFARS 252.7013 ( Exhibit 3 ) The most egregious defect is that all foreign competition has been gifted 20% to foreign firms by the removal of DFARS
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252.236-7010 which requires that 20% be added to the price of their bid submission which give a competitive advantage to U.S. Firms. The contracting officer has no choice but to insert the clauses that benefit U.S. Business and that is they have neglected to add the following DFARS to their solicitation and to implement the guidance that these DFARS give: DFARS 236.274 ( Exhibit 3, pg 15) Restriction on Acquisition of Steel from Section 108 of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act 2009 ( Public Law 110-329, Division E). DFARS 236-7013 ( Exhibit 3, pg 14) Requirement for competition opportunity and manufacturers for American steel producers, fabricators, and manufacturers. PGI 236.273 ( Exhibit 3, pg 18) Construction in Foreign Countries 252.236-7011 (Exhibit 3, pg 21)Overseas Architect-Engineer Services--Restriction to United States Firms The Air Force have wrongly stated in the Scope of Work that work must have consulting firms that are from Qatar in Section 1 of Attachment 1. ( Exhibit 1a, 1.5.1.2) The Scope of Work is defective in terms of compliance to this DFARS that has been omitted and the contracting officer has mentioned in the Scope of Work ( Exhibit 1a. pg 9) that this is a DesignBuild. The USACE might want to avail themselves this link http://farsite.hill.af.mil/reghtml/regs/far2afmcfars/fardfars/dfars/dfars252_232.htm This is a systemic failure of USACE Leadership at a level that extends to the Pentagon. This is a pandering to foreign firms at the expense of U.S. Business and if the USACE contracting officers cannot rid themselves of the Organizational Conflicts of Interests that they continue to exhibit, then the GAO should recommend that all DoD Agencies no longer have the ability to perform contracting functions. The steering of contracts and attempting to limit competition and exclude American businesses is simply stealing from American Businesses. This is American Taxpayer dollars paying for the project and an American Contract being performed on an American Base overseas. Why would an American contracting officer remove DFARS 252.236-7010 and leave off all these other cited clauses ? The Army Corp of Engineers Leadership, contracting officers, and their Head of Agency steering contracts and bid-rigging is not new. The Iraq Embassy sole source to First Kuwaiti that involved trafficked labor, human rights violations, and now, $120 Million owed to the U.S. Government for defective and shoddy construction repairs. There has been an Inspector Generals report now about this DFARS removal and the requirement that a Garrison commander approve any task order made for greater than $ 500,000 made to the USACE Inspector Generals office ( EXHIBIT IG ) The other example I can give of bid-rigging by the USACE in Kuwait is the fabricated FMS case of an award to DWC where Contracting officers Robyn Ratchford ( Exhibit 4) and Rick Elder ( Exhibit gave 2 different sole source awards to a company called DWC General Trading and Contracting. Ex-Army Major Bradley Wood created DWC General Trading and Contracting LLC in Texas by the same name and collected money from NBTC and MBCT ( Exhibit 4 b Declaration ) in exchange for subcontracting the $ 11 Mil project that Rick Elder awarded and the $ 25 Mil project that Robyn Ratchford awarded. This is bid-rigging in Kuwait at its finest. The Head of Agency, Lt General Robert L. Van Antwerp justification used on Ms. Ratchfords $ 25 Mil award was a year old and Lt General Van Antwerp had retired months earlier. How could the awarded DWC (DWC-Malek Al-Haddad Sons General Trading Contracting Co), a Kuwait company end up in the hands of a 9 month old company formed by Bradley Wood - ? The GAO claim to be the investigative arm of Congress, but time and again, the GAO do nothing about the fraud and corruption conducted by the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and the Army Corp of Engineers in Kuwait. This bid rigging, removing of DFARS clauses, failing to put DFAR clauses in and creating a requirement that a Garrison Commander give approval of a contract or task order is in fact white collar crime being committed is defrauding U.S. Businesses of Billions of dollars (Exhibit 3. pg 9).

In accordance with 4 C.F.R. 21.1 (c ) (1), the relevant electronic mail address for this protest is keven.barnes@LatvianConnectionLLC.com (Representative for the Protester Latvian Connection General Trading and Construction LLC) The Contracting Officer for this procurement is Ms. Le Phuong-Thuy for the Army Corp of Engineers, Winchester, VA, 22604, The email address for Ms. Phuong-Thuy is Phuong-Thuy.T.Le@usace.army.mil ,Ms. Phuong-Thuy telephone number is listed as 540-665-2657.
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Per FAR 33.103 Protests to the agency (2) Latvian Connection LLC Shareefa Complex Kuwait City, Kuwait Representative of Protester: Keven Barnes, CEO Email keven.barnes@LatvianConnectionLLC.com The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) should sustain this protest, stay the performance of the Contract, and direct the Army Corp of Engineers Middle East District (USACE Middle East) of Winchester, Virginia to put in the clause DFARS 252.236-7010 OVERSEAS MILITARY CONSTRUCTION PREFERENCE FOR U.S. FIRMS and the other missing DFARS clauses. INTERESTED PARTY STATUS As discussed below LC LLC seeks to compete for the contract that the proposed RFQ (Exhibit 1). Latvian Connection LLC incorporates all the below facts and (Exhibits) into this Interested Party Status section. Further, if this protest is sustained and USACE Middle East evaluates Latvian Connections proposal, then LC LLC, a VOSB, responsible offeror will have a reasonable chance of winning the Contract. Therefore, Latvian Connection LLC is an actual offeror whose direct economic interest is affected by the award of the Contract and hence, an interested party. 31 U.S.C. 3551 (2000); FAR 33.101; 4 C.F.R. 21.0(a)(2006); Designer Assoc. , Inc.,B-293226, FEB 12, 2004 C.P.D. 114 at 2. This is a Pre-Award Protest. TIMELINESS OF THIS PROTEST The Pre-Award protest against the USACE Middle Easts RFQ, W912ER-13-R-0025 dated May 8, 2013, and being conducted according to www.fbo.gov and is timely if: 21.2 Time for filing.(a)(1) Protests based upon alleged improprieties in a solicitation which are apparent prior to bid opening or the time set for receipt of initial proposals shall be filed prior to bid opening or the time set for receipt of initial proposals. In procurements where proposals are requested, alleged improprieties which do not exist in the initial solicitation but which are subsequently incorporated into the solicitation must be protested not later than the next closing time for receipt of proposals following the incorporation. This is a pre-award protest and the bid due in for this solicitation August 22, 2013 at 4:00 PM Eastern Standard Time and the value of this RFQ is valued between $ 25 Mil to $ 100 Mil. Improprieties being committed by this contracting officer is an understatement. The United States Air Force has become on par with the United States Army in terms of contracting irregularities and what can only be described as a white-collar crime organization with systemic failures in its leadership from Lieutenant General Thomas P. Bostick, CCommanding General and Chief of Engineers and his predecessor Lt General Van Antwerp, all the way down to the contracting officer level. These DFARS clauses are in the Defense Acquisition Regulations for a reason and not so they can be arbitrarily and capriciously omitted. What American Small Business did not however measure is to what lengths the Government Audit Agency will go to cover-up the crimes of the United States Army, Army Corp of Engineers, Navy and Air Force and how, with its rulings against small business, the criminal enterprise of white-collar crime against American Small Businesses continues in Kuwait at the hands of 60 lawyers sitting in the GAO offices. The GAO do not even call for investigations on a solicitation posted for just 15 hours that was worth over $ 3 Million ( Exhibits 18 & 18A ) . There has been a call for an Inspector Generals investigation of just how it is a company named DWC (Exhibit 4) was created by an ex-Army Major called DWC General Trading and Contracting LLC. The sole source award was to DWCMalek Al-Haddad Sons General Trading Contracting Co WLL. Bradley Wood, CEO of the DWC General Trading and Contracting Col LLC went to NBTC and MBTC ( Exhibit 4 b Declaration) to ask to sell them the contract and to

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perform it as the contractor. That sole source was based on a Determination and Finding and was used as a year old document after Lt General Van Antwerp had retired a year earlier. ( Exhibit 4, pg 10 ) Bid Rigging and steering of contracts is a hall-mark of the Army and Army Corp of Engineers in Kuwait. Camp Arifjan has had over 20 Contracting Officers indicted and jailed in the last 4 years and the corruption on the base is an ongoing criminal investigation. (Exhibit 7 ) The Army Corp of Engineers has an office on Camp Arifjan. The Army Corp of Engineers should be, in this era of reduced budget funding, competing each individual proposed project where the projected level of the project is under $ 700,000 and in a contingency environment, the solicitations should be source to U.S. Small Businesses per FAR 2.101. The JOC is an unwarranted combining of an unspecified number of contracts for an unspecified cost. The Army Corp of Engineers want a blank checkbook and would like to steer contracts to their foreign companies and may have already taken kick-backs or gratuities to removed the DFARS 252.236 7010 OVERSEAS MILITARY CONSTRUCTION PREFERENCE FOR U.S. FIRMS and have not put in the preferences for U.S. Steel manufacturers DFARS 252.274 and 252.236 7013. This solicitation should be cancelled in its entirety and as needed, these projects should be solicited just as project in the UAE are now for another interagency Department of Defense Agency, the United States Air Force. Projects W912BU-13-R-0037 Fire Protection; W912BU-13-R-0033 Ordinance Facility; W912BU-13-R-0032 Clinic; W912BU-13-R-0034 Jet Engine Maintenance Facility; and W912BU-13-R-0036 Jet Blast Deflectors. The record of the Army Corp of Engineers in terms of corruption is well documented in a SIGR report ( Exhibit 7 and 4 c) Kuwait is an extension of Iraq for contracting and the majority of the fraud has been committed in Kuwait and this solicitation is no exception to that fraud being committed on U.S. Small Businesses and the American tax-payer. The contracting officers SF1402 ( warrant ) should mean they have the obligations to the Competition in Contracting Act, the Small Business Act, and fair play and most of all, supporting the economy of the United States instead of funneling American tax payer dollars into foreign companies and Islamic state actors. A recent SIGR report shows that American contract dollars are not staying out of the hands of terrorists ( Exhibit 21) and with 20 U.S. Embassies shut down currently, is evidence that this problem of foreign contractors money putting money into the wrong hands is because US contracting officers are violating United State Federal Acquisition Regulations and not setting aside Federal Taxpayer dollars for United States Small Businesses and are instead pandering to foreign companies. Further, this is a contingency operation ( Exhibit 11) and as the construction projects are in contingency operation area, which Kuwait is, then the threshold for a set aside according to FAR 2.101 is $ 1 Million and less purchases of supplies or services. FACTUAL GROUNDS OF THE PROTEST 1. The RFQ The Army Corp of Engineers Middle East District (USACE Middle East) issued RFQ W912ER-13-R-0025 on May 8, 2013 for multiple ( undisclosed projects ) Kuwait Job Order Contract. (Exhibit 1) on the GPE, www.fedbizopps.gov with a bid due in date of August 22, 2103. What is clear is that this is a number of solicitations with a value of between $ 2,000 and $ 500,000 and that falls in the Small Business Set-Aside range of $ 3,000 to $ 1,000,000 and was not set-aside for U.S. Small Business concerns. This solicitation should be cancelled and each individual proposed project bid. II. Latvian Connection LLCs Proposal

Latvian Connection LLC, a Small Business Administration registered company that is a Veteran-Owned Business (VOSB), should only be competing against other Small Businesses and the solicitation should be marked that the solicitation is exclusively set-aside for U.S. Small Business excluding all businesses that do not qualify under the

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definitions of a U.S. Registered Small Business.

Request of a ruling by the Comptroller General of the United States Latvian Connection LLC (VOSB) specifically requests that the GAO level Pre-Award protest be referred to the Small Business Administration for their review. Latvian Connection LLC also requests that the Comptroller General of the United States ruling be made about the Pre-Award protest of unnumbered Solicitation for Job Order Contract and ask the Army Corp of Engineers Middle East District (USACE Middle East) to take corrective action. Latvian Connection LLC is one of those U.S Businesses and has an office located in Kuwait and serving both the Middle East and its home state of California. Should these Job Orders be conducted as individual projects, the majority would be under $ 1 Million and therefore be a set-aside for U.S. Small Business according to FAR 2.101. President Obamas Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget issued a Memorandum on the subject of a April 25, 2012 meeting of the Small Business Procurement Group (Exhibit 10) and this memo from Joseph G. Jordan, Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, and Karen G. Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration state that there were immediate steps to ensure small businesses are utilized to the maximum extent possible. Maximizing Opportunities for Small Businesses under the Simplified Acquisition Threshold Pursuant to longstanding statutory requirements in the Small Business Administration Act, agencies are required to automatically set aside work for small businesses that is equal to or less that the value of the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT) (generally $ 150,000) unless the contracting officer determines the rule of two cannot be met ie. There is not a reasonable expectation of obtaining offers from two or more responsible small business concerns that are competitive in terms of market prices, quality, and delivery. There are more than 5 U.S. Small Businesses in the Middle East Region, SMI-USA LLC, Trade Links USA LLC, American General Trading, and Latvian Connection LLC. Mr. Jordan and Ms Mills go on to say that a third-party analysis of the Federal Procurement Data System suggest that a significant amount of work under the SAT is not going to small businesses, including for products and services in industries where small businesses are typically well represented. This suggests that opportunities for small businesses are being lost, and that agencies must take additional steps to consistently apply set-asides in the manner prescribed by law and regulation. REQUEST FOR HEARING OR CONFERENCE AND PROTECTIVE ORDER If the issues in this case cannot be resolved on the basis of the documents requested, then Latvian Connection LLC requests a hearing on all of the matters set forth above. 4 C.F.R. 21.1 (d)(2008). LC LLC does not request a protective order. LEGAL GROUNDS OF PROTEST I. There is Overwhelming Evidence of Latvian Connection LLC that Army Corp of Engineers Middle East District (USACE Middle East) have removed the DFARS clause DFARS 252.236-7010 and failed to insert several other DFARS clauses.

Ms. PhuongThuy did not give preference to U.S. Firms as required by DFARS 252.236-7010 for this solicitation for the RFQ W912ER-13-R-0025 (Exhibit 1) and in fact went so far as to give foreign businesses a gift of 20% that the foreign contractors dont have to pay and directly benefits foreign businesses completely counter to DFARS 252.236-7010. RFQ W15QKN12R0070 THERMAL SHELTERS (B-408182.3 ) ( Exhibit 22) showed in the Agency report that there were 16 U.S. Firms that submitted bids for a $ 29 Mil project. There are U.S. Firms that will bid and they should not be denied the competitive advantage due to the Organizational Conflicts of Interest at the Army Corp of Engineers and the current environment of bid-rigging that goes on under the leadership of Lieutenant General Thomas P. Bostick

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FAR 19.601 (Exhibit 3, pg 3) (e) Contracting officers, including those located overseas, are required to comply with this subpart for U.S. small business concerns. Latvian Connection LLC is one U.S. Small Business in Kuwait and there other others. Trade Links USA, SMI, American General Trading, to name but a few Small Businesses in Kuwait, and as the Senior Attorney from the Small Business Administration stated in her review comments to the GAO for B-407391, Protest of Latvian Connection LLC, Request for Reconsideration, Dec 12, 2012, 15(j) of the Small Business Act, 19.502-2 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations. (FAR), and GAO rulings on small business set-asides, all of which state that small business set-asides below the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT) are automatic; in other words, a contracting officer must set-aside the Acquisition for small business unless he/she can demonstrate that the agency will not receive at least two competitive offers from small businesses. First, the Small Business Act provides for an automatic set-aside, or reservation, for small businesses for acquisitions valued below SAT as follows: (j)Small business reservation (1) Each contract for the purchase of goods and services that has an anticipated value of greater than $ 2,500 but not greater than $ 100,000 shall be reserved exclusively for small business concerns unless the contracting officer is unable to obtain offers from two or more small business concerns that are competitive with the market prices and are competitive with regard to the quality and delivery of the goods or services being purchased. 15 U.S.C. 644 (emphasis added). In other words, every acquisition under the SAT is reserved for small businesses unless the contracting officer will be unable to obtain offers from two or more small businesses. Moreover, the statute states that it is up to the contracting officer not a specific small business advocating for a small business set-aside, not SBA, and not any other entity to perform adequate market research to be able to make a determination that there are not at least two small businesses capable of performing the requirement. (Exhibit 16 & 17) 19.502-1 Requirements for setting aside acquisitions. (Exhibit 3) (a) The contracting officer shall set aside an individual acquisition or class of acquisitions for competition among small businesses when (1) It is determined to be in the interest of maintaining or mobilizing the Nations full productive capacity, war or national defense programs; or (2) Assuring that a fair proportion of Government contracts in each industry category is placed with small business concerns; and the circumstances described in 19.502-2 or 19.502-3(a) exist. 19.502-2 Total small business set-asides. (Exhibit 3) (a) Each acquisition of supplies or services that has an anticipated dollar value exceeding $3,000 ($15,000 for acquisitions as described in 13.201(g)(1)), but not over $100,000 ($250,000 for acquisitions described in paragraph (1) of the Simplified Acquisition Threshold definition at 2.101), is automatically reserved exclusively for small business concerns and shall be set aside for small business unless the contracting officer determines there is not a reasonable expectation of obtaining offers from two or more responsible small business concerns that are competitive in terms of market prices, quality, and delivery. If the contracting officer does not proceed with the small business set-aside and purchases on an unrestricted basis, the contracting officer shall include in the contract file the reason for this unrestricted purchase. If the contracting officer receives only one acceptable offer from a responsible small business concern in response to a set-aside, the contracting officer should make an award to that firm. If the contracting officer receives no acceptable offers from responsible small business concerns, the set-aside shall be withdrawn and the requirement, if still valid, shall be resolicited on an unrestricted basis. The small business reservation does not preclude the award of a contract with a value not greater than $100,000 under Subpart 19.8, Contracting with the Small Business Administration, under 19.1007(c), Solicitations equal to or less than the ESB reserve amount, or under 19.1305, HUBZone set-aside procedures. (b) The contracting officer shall set aside any acquisition over $100,000 for small business participation when there is a reasonable expectation that (1) offers will be obtained from at least two responsible small business concerns offering the products of different small business concerns (but see paragraph (c) of this subsection); and (2) award will be made at fair market prices. Total small business set-asides shall not be made unless such a reasonable expectation exists

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The Contracting Officer did not follow this Federal Acquisition Regulation, and instead solicited companies that were not qualified as small businesses. The contracting officer did not set-aside the original RFQ for small business. 19.502-5 Insufficient causes for not setting aside an acquisition. (Exhibit 3) None of the following is, in itself, sufficient cause for not setting aside an acquisition: (a) A large percentage of previous contracts for the required item(s) have been placed with small business concerns. (b) The item is on an established planning list under the Industrial Readiness Planning Program. However, a total small business set-aside shall not be made when the list contains a large business Planned Emergency Producer of the item(s) who has conveyed a desire to supply some or all of the required items. (c) The item is on a Qualified Products List. However, a total small business set-aside shall not be made if the list contains the products of large businesses unless none of the large businesses desire to participate in the acquisition. (d) A period of less than 30 days is available for receipt of offers. (e) The acquisition is classified. (f) Small business concerns are already receiving a fair proportion of the agencys contracts for supplies and services. (g) A class small business set-aside of the item or service has been made by another contracting activity. (h) A brand name or equal product description will be used in the solicitation. To date, there has not been a legal reason given by the Army Corp of Engineers or the Contracting Officer, Ms. PhuongThuy as to why S Army Corp of Engineers Middle East District (USACE Middle East) contracting office refuses to put the clauses in that benefit U.S. firms. II. The Army Corp of Engineers Middle East District (USACE Middle East). is Unreasonable By Contracting Officer, Ms. Phuong-Thuy not conducting a set-aside solicitation as required by the FAR and the Small Business Act, the contracting officer has acted unreasonably. This Pre-Award protest clearly demonstrates that this solicitation should first be conducted exclusively for small business set-asides and apply the rule of two.

Ms. Phuong-Thuy did not exclude foreign businesses from this solicitation for the construction project ( Exhibit 1) as required by Federal statutes. And Ms. Phuong-Thuy failed to insert DFARS regulations that would ensure that American Businesses, and specifically U.S. Small Businesses would be able to compete. Ms. PhuongThuy also is trying to limit competition to Local Only when the spirit of the omitted DFARS expressly prohibits such a limitation.
III. Latvian Connection LLC Has Been Prejudiced

Prejudice requires a reasonable likelihood that Latvian Connection LLC would have been awarded the Contract if we had been allowed the opportunity had been conducted as a U.S Firm Preference under DFARS 252.236-7010, a U.S. Preference Business Set-Aside that fell into the U.S. Dollar value range of $ 25 Mil to $100 Mil. The solicitation states that the projects will have a value of between $ 2,000 and $ 500,000 and that is under the Simplified Acquisition Threshold of $ 1 Mil where FAR 2.101 states that in a contingency area and OUTSIDE the United States, the Small Business Set-Aside Threshold will be $ 1 Mil ( Exhibit 3 ) Such a determination is not susceptible to a precise mathematical calculation; rather, prejudice requires only that but for the agencys actions, the protestors would have had a reasonable chance of receiving the award. Anthem Alliance for Health, Inc., TRICARE Management Activity Reconsideration, B-278189.5, July 13, 1998, 98-2 CPD 66. A reasonable possibility of prejudice therefore is sufficient to sustain the protest. United Intl. Engg., Inc., B-245448.3, Jan 29, 1992, 92-1 C.P.D. 122. Europe Displays, Inc., B-297099. REQUEST FOR DOCUMENTS Latvian Connection LLC requests that the following materials be included in the agency report, pursuant to 4 C.F.R. 21.1(d)(2008): All Market Research regarding Set-Aside Businesses in Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Qatar Signed DD Form 2579, Small Business Coordination Record Bid Abstract and Evaluations
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All emails, memo for record, regarding this solicitation All documents that refer or relate to the efforts to obtain competition from U.S. Registered Small Businesses in Kuwait. All documents that refer or relate to the efforts to increase competition All documents that refer or relate to the Contracting Officers Market Research

REQUEST FOR RELIEF AND CONCLUSION Latvian Connection LLC requests that the Army Corp of Engineers Middle East District (USACE Middle East) remove the contracting officers involved in inserting the clauses in this solicitation and that the USACE follow the Rules, Regulations, and guidelines regarding the DFARS that benefit U.S. Businesses. Latvian Connection LLC would ask that this solicitation be cancelled and that each project be conducted individually for full disclosure something the Army and Army Corp of Engineers are not known for when it comes to contracting procedures and fairness in Kuwait, Iraq or Afghanistan. Quite the opposite is true of the Department of Defense in Kuwait. ( Exhibit 7 , Exhibit 4, Exhibit 4b ) It would seem that the directives flowing out of the President of the United States office are orders and those orders are not being followed by General Officers, Regular grade officers, and Airman in defiance to set-asides that are to be exclusively reserved for United States Small Business of which Latvian Connection LLC is a Veteran Owned Small Business. Latvian Connection LLC requests the removal of any contracting officer in the Middle East who cannot follow the Federal Acquisition Regulations and is steering contracts by either posting under false contracting offices, failing to post on www.fbo.gov , and by not supporting American Small Businesses like Latvian Connection LLC and by excluding American Small Businesses in open disobedience of an Act designed to help American Small Businesses and the American Economy. For the GAO to continue to support the violations of NOT SETTING ASIDE EXCLUSIVELY for SMALL BUSINESSES or U.S. Business Preferent and to not recommend that all ALL FOREIGN COMPETITION FOR PURCHASES with a VALUE under $1 Mil ( SAT ) be reserved exclusively for U.S. Small Businesses and that DFARS 252.236-7010 be routinely applied as directed. The GAO should recommend that Military Contracting Officers be administratively disciplined until the Federal Acquisition Regulations, Laws, Rules, and the Competition in Contracting Act and Small Business Act are implemented. If this means that contracting activities are given to another non-DoD Agency because the contracting officers of the Department of Defense are failing to follow the Presidential Orders and the will of Congressionally enacted Acts to benefit U.S. Small Businesses and the American economy, then that should be the recommendation of the GAO. The Air Force has acknowledged that is has not met its Small Business Goals for the last 2 years (Exhibit 10) and according to Jodie Lee of Federal News Radio.com in her article on USAID, an agency that operates nearly exclusively overseas, has not met their Small Business Goal for the last 6 years, and one of the reasons is Agencies are not complying with the law. ( Exhibit 19 ) The SBA Senior Lawyer has stated that set-aside is mandatory exclusively for Small Business and the FAR and SBA rules do apply overseas. We also request that Latvian Connection LLC be reimbursed the costs of filing and pursuing its protest, including reasonable protest preparation fees. Bid Protest Regulations 4 C.F.R. 21.8(d)(1) (2010).

Respectfully submitted,

KEVEN L. BARNES __________________________

Digitally signed by KEVEN L. BARNES DN: cn=KEVEN L. BARNES, o=LATVIAN CONNECTION LLC, ou, email=keven.barnes@latvianconne ctionllc.com, c=US Date: 2013.08.16 17:37:03 +03'00'

Keven L. Barnes CEO Latvian Connection LLC

GAO PRE-AWARD PROTEST AGAINST ARMY CORP OF ENGINEER ( USACE MIDDLE EAST) W912ER-13-R-0025 JOB ORDER CONTRACT