Claim for Proposal Preparation Costs

The Land Group of Salt Lake City filed a claim for reimbursement of proposal preparation costs under a request for proposals issued by the National Park Service. The Park Service would not consider the Land Group's proposal since it was received after the deadline for receipt of proposals. The Land Group filed a protest with the Park Service stating that it had evidence that its proposal had been delivered on time and that additional information would be sent shortly. However, the Land Group did not communicate again with the Park Service for more than 3 months. Therefore, GAO believed that any protest it received on the matter would be untimely because the Land Group failed to pursue the issue in a diligent manner. Although the Land Group filed a claim and not a protest, GAO has held that, where consideration of a claim for proposal preparation costs would involve the consideration of the same issues raised in an untimely protest, it will refuse to consider the claim. Accordingly, the claim was dismissed.