Request for Reconsideration

A firm requested reconsideration of a decision in which its protest was dismissed as untimely. In the original protest, the firm protested an allegedly unwarranted restriction in a solicitation issued by the U.S. Marine Corps to upgrade certain disk controllers and drives. The protested restriction required benchmarking to establish compatibility with the Marine Corps' computer system. The protester refused to conduct the benchmark on the grounds that the requirement was unnecessary and that it imposed an undue financial burden on the firm. In its request for reconsideration, the protester suggested that the timeliness rule should have been tolled. However, the protester did not dispute the fact that it became aware of the basis for its protest at the initial debriefing or that it did not protest the agency's rejection of its bid within 10 working days thereafter. GAO held that bid protest procedures require that a protest be filed within the prescribed period, and the protester did not meet that requirement. Accordingly, the prior decision dismissing the protest as untimely was affirmed.