Request for Reconsideration Alleging Deficient Solicitation

A firm requested reconsideration of a GAO decision with respect to its protest of an invitation for bids (IFB) issued by the Air Force. The protest was denied because it provided no support for its allegations that the solicitation was deficient other than to state that the agency's response to numerous prebid questions was evasive, ambiguous, and precluded a reasonable bid. In its request for reconsideration, the protester conceded that it should have provided more information. It then identified three instances as examples of where it believed the agency's responses to its prebid questions were inadequate and explained its reasons for such a belief. However, the information and the explanations were known to the protester before or during the development of its protest but were not presented at that time. GAO held that a protester which withheld known relevant facts and arguments during the development of an initial protest, which was summarily denied for failure to demonstrate that the protester was entitled to remedy, cannot by way of a request for reconsideration cure defects in the protest or avoid the consequences of its failure to affirmatively prove its case. Accordingly, the request for reconsideration was denied.