Protest of Department of Army Contract Award

A firm requested reconsideration of a prior decision dismissing its protest as untimely. The protester's objections constituted allegations of improprieties in the invitation for bids specifications which were apparent prior to the bid opening, but were not initially raised until after bid opening by a letter to the contracting agency. Consequently, it was concluded that the protester failed to comply with a time limitation prerequisite to subsequent consideration of these issues. Counsel for the protester claimed error in the consideration of the basis of the original submission and asserted that the issues were presented as a matter of public and procurement policy to be reviewed for compliance with statute and practice relating to public bidding, rather than as a protest of a disappointed bidder. The protester then asked that the matter be reconsidered on the merits without respect to time requirements. The purpose of time limits for filing protests is to assure that Government procurements are not burdened by untimely protests. Issues raised in this case do not warrant invoking exceptions to the timeliness requirements and the protester failed to state any error of law or fact not previously considered. Therefore, the prior decision was affirmed.