Protest of Contract Award for Automated Mail Processing System

A firm protested the award of a contract under a request for proposals (RFP) issued by the Internal Revenue Service for an automated mailing system. The protester contended that: (1) certain aspects of the RFP favored the awardee; (2) the awardee could not meet certain other specifications; and (3) award at a price substantially higher than that offered by the protester was improper. The protester's first allegation was that the design of the system described in the RFP was nearly identical in many aspects to the design of the system offered by the awardee. The protester admitted that it recognized this fact before submitting its offer, but asserted that it nonetheless entered the competition because the RFP also included specifications that the protester did not believe the awardee could meet. Bid protest procedures require that protests based upon alleged improprieties in a solicitation which are apparent prior to the closing date for receipt of initial proposals be filed before that date. The protest was filed after the closing date; therefore, it was untimely filed. Regarding the protester's other allegations, bid protest procedures also require that protests against other apparent solicitation defects be filed not later than 10 working days after the basis of the protest is known or should have been known. The protest was filed 2 months after the bases of the protests were known. Therefore, these allegations were also untimely filed and not considered on the merits. Accordingly, the protest was dismissed.