[Protest of GSA Contract Award for Custodial Services]

A firm protested a General Services Administration (GSA) contract award for custodial services, contending that: (1) the solicitation should have been amended; and (2) GSA did not allow it time to consider the response to its request for clarification of the solicitation. GAO noted that: (1) the protester requested that GSA clarify 13 specific questions concerning the solicitation; (2) bid opening was postponed to allow GSA time to respond to the protester's inquiry; and (3) the request for clarification, which was received before bid opening, merely concerned certain aspects of the solicitation and did not constitute a formal protest to the agency. GAO found that: (1) although a letter does not have to explicitly state that it is intended as a protest, it must convey an expression of dissatisfaction and a request for corrective action; (2) the response to the protester's request, which was received 1 day prior to bid opening, should have put the protester on notice that GSA was not going to amend the solicitation; and (3) the protest was untimely since it was not filed until after bid opening. Accordingly, the protest was dismissed.