Protest of Bid Rejection for Failure To Acknowledge Amendment

A firm protested the rejection of its bid by the Forest Service as nonresponsive because it failed to acknowledge receipt of an amendment to the invitation for bids (IFB). The firm first protested the rejection of its bid to the Forest Service. It contended that: it never received the amendment; it was informed by Government personnel prior to depositing its bid that no amendments had been issued; and the amendment had no more than an insignificant effect on price, quantity, quality, or delivery. The Forest Service denied the firm's protest stating that the first two bases of protest had no effect on the issue of bidder responsiveness and that the amendment had a significant effect on price and could not be waived. The Forest Service contended that the amendment had been mailed to all bidders sent the solicitation and that a clerk had mistakenly given the protester erroneous information. The protester filed its protest with GAO 20 days after receipt of its notification of adverse agency action. The firm contended that its protest was timely filed within 10 working days of its receipt of the agency denial, when two Federal holidays that fell within the time period were considered. Alternatively, it contended that the merits of the protest should have been considered in any event because they were of significant interest to the construction industry and presented an unusual fact situation that needed resolution. Finally, it contended that since work under the contract would not begin for some time, it believed that waiver of the timeliness issue and consideration of the protest merits would not prejudice the awardee of the contract. GAO held that the protest was not timely filed within 10 days of notification of the initial adverse agency action. Since the issues of the protest had been considered before, GAO held that they did were not significant within the meaning of the protest procedure. The fact that none of the parties would allegedly be prejudiced did not provide a basis for waiver. Accordingly, the protest was dismissed.