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[Request for Reconsideration]

B-209753.2 Jan 10, 1983
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Highlights

A firm requested reconsideration of a decision which dismissed as untimely its protest of a small business set-aside. The protester asserted that the interpretation as to when a protest is timely filed, which was applied in the prior decision, was contrary to GAO Bid Protest Procedures and, therefore, constituted a substantive change which should be promulgated after requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act had been met. GAO stated that, as a legislative branch organization, it is not subject to the act and, further, that the act does not apply to public contracts. Additionally, the intent of the bid protest procedures is to provide expeditious handling of bid protests and the ruling in the prior decision was made to resolve an ambiguity by giving an authoritative interpretation of the intent. GAO also noted that the act does not apply to interpretations, as opposed to substantive changes, of published rules. Since this interpretation was readily available to the procurement community in the published decisions of the Comptroller General, GAO stated that the protester could not legitimately assert that it did not know of the interpretation on which the prior decision was based. Accordingly, the prior decision was affirmed.

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