GSA CTA and Partial Set Asides

[earbinov]

I understand that per GSA and SBA rules, in the case of a set-aside, a CTA would need to have all members in harmony with whatever the set-aside was (SB, WOSB, SDVOSB, etc.). What isn't clear to me is if an order/schedule BPA solicitation is partially set aside, does that still hold true?

I'm thinking of a situation where an order is partially set-aside, and a small business schedule holder teams with a other-than-small schedule holder, and they divvy up the work such that the small business does the set-aside work, and the large does the unrestricted portion.

I suppose each company could just respond to the respective portions of the solicitation they want to and avoid the CTA, but it may be easier to present a single quote from a CTA, than to have to submit two separate quotes - plus it would be be easier to evaluate in source selection. I haven't been able to find anything regarding CTAs and partial-set asides.

Basically, a company I work with is facing a situation where an invitation-only RFQ was issued, but it's 100% small business set aside. The firm I work with is small, but they don't have all the items in their schedule needed by the government. It's very clear that the government has a certain platform in mind, but the government seems to have made an oversight in that the platform they want is exclusively held by a large business (not the platform provider themselves...they aren't on schedule). So we can't prime/sub with the large since we don't have the right items in our price catalog. We can't do a CTA since the other company isn't small and its 100% set-aside. I emailed the specialist explaining that I believe they made an error and they're not going to end up with any viable quotes, and I haven't heard back yet.

Curious to get peoples' thoughts.