[Protest of Navy Contract Award for Aircraft Maintenance and Material Support]

A firm protested a Navy contract award for maintenance and material support for aircraft, contending that: (1) the solicitation should have been amended to incorporate clarifying questions and written answers; (2) the solicitation's price evaluation criteria did not ensure an accurate and fair determination of the lowest overall bid price; and (3) the Navy's withholding of acquisition procedures from the terms of the solicitation had resulted in a situation where a buy-in could occur. Bid protest regulations provide that protests filed with GAO must set forth a detailed statement of the legal and factual grounds for protest including copies of relevant documents. GAO determined that: (1) the contentions that the solicitation's provisions were confusing and the price evaluation criteria did not ensure an accurate and fair determination of the lowest overall price were untimely since they were filed after bid opening; (2) new allegations and grounds of protest first presented at either the conference on the protest or in its subsequent written comments to GAO were untimely filed; (3) it will only consider untimely protests when the issue or issues raised are of widespread significance to the procurement community and have not been previously considered; and (4) the possibility of a buy-in is not illegal and does not provide a basis upon which an award may be challenged. Accordingly, the protest was dismissed.