Request for Reconsideration

A prospective contractor requested reconsideration of a GAO decision in which GAO denied his protest in part on the merits and dismissed his protest in part as untimely filed. Protesting under two requests for proposals, the protester alleged that an agency contract specialist had refused to supply him with certain requested information concerning prior agency contracts before the proposal due date. GAO denied this portion of the protest because the protester had not shown that the information was necessary in order to make an informed offer or that the requested information could have been supplied by the closing date. GAO held that the protester had not met his burden of proof and denied this portion of the protest. The protester also contended that he should have been given an opportunity by GAO to submit evidence on this issue at a hearing before any decision was reached on its merits, and he requested that he be allowed to cross-examine any evidence offered by the agency. However, the agency protest report had been sent to the protester by the agency, and he was given an opportunity to comment on the report before GAO issued its decision. A request for a conference to be held after the Comptroller General had decided the merits of the protest was procedurally inappropriate and could not be granted. The protester contended that the issues considered as raised in an untimely fashion were implicit in his initial protest submission and should have been considered timely since that communication was filed with GAO on the closing date. GAO did not agree. If the protester had desired GAO to consider these issues, he should have directly stated them as his bases for protest in his initial submission. Since the alleged solicitation defects were known to the protester prior to the closing date, they should have been directly protested to GAO prior to the closing date in order to be considered. Since they were not, the protest was untimely. The GAO decision denying the protest in part and dismissing it in part was affirmed.