[Protest of Navy Rejection of Amendment Acknowledgment]

A firm protested the Navy's rejection of its telegraphic acknowledgment of a solicitation amendment as late. The protester contended that it did not receive the amendment until the day of bid opening. To the extent that the protester considers this to be an impropriety, bid protest procedures provide that protests based upon alleged improprieties in solicitations must be filed prior to bid opening. Since this protest was not filed by that date, it was untimely and not for consideration. Furthermore, the protester's late receipt of the amendment was irrelevant unless it was the result of a deliberate effort by the contracting officials to exclude the protester from the competition, and there was no evidence of exclusion in this case. Further, federal regulations in effect at the time of the action did not allow an exception for the protester's notice of its acknowledgment sent by the telegraph company to the agency. Finally, GAO found that the fact that the Navy took 2 months to inform the protester that its bid was nonresponsive did not affect the validity of the bid rejection. Accordingly, the protest was denied.