Protest Against Contract Award

A firm protested the award of a contract by the Army to provide individual-paced training courses. The protester filed an initial protest with the Army claiming that the Army had insufficient grounds for technically disqualifying its lower-priced proposal. The Army denied the protest by letter dated November 14, 1979. A protest was then filed with GAO on December 5, 1979. If a protest is filed with the contracting agency, any subsequent protest to GAO must be received within 10 working days of formal notification of, or actual or constructive knowledge of, initial adverse agency action. The Army's November 14 letter constituted initial adverse agency action; thus, the protest to GAO, received 14 working days after the date of the letter, was untimely and could not be considered on its merits. Accordingly, the protest was dismissed.