Allegations of Improper Procurement Procedures and Practices

The protester alleged a variety of improper acts on the part of the contracting agency, including specification defects in the request for proposals, improper listing of the procurement in the Commerce Business Daily, and improper preaward rulings. The protest was untimely because, even if the letter transmitted with the protester's proposal were considered a protest, the protest was not submitted to GAO within 10 working days from the date of receipt of the agency's adverse decision on the alleged protest. Review of the letter allegedly constituting the protest indicated that it was proper to consider the letter as encouraging an exchange of information rather than as filing a protest. Since the untimely protest did not involve questions of widespread interest, it was not for consideration under exceptions to the timeliness requirements of Bid Protest Procedures.