[Protest of NRC Rejection of Proposal for Commercial Facilities Management]

A firm protested the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) rejection of its late bid for commercial facilities management, contending that: (1) since a delivery firm attempted to deliver the bid before bid opening, the omission of a room number should not have caused NRC to reject the bid; and (2) it was in the government's best interest to have as many bids as possible in order to increase competition. GAO held that: (1) since the bid was considered hand-carried, NRC could only consider it if the paramount cause for the late receipt was government impropriety; and (2) since the protester inadvertently omitted the appropriate room number for delivery, NRC could not permit it to deliver its proposal after bid opening since that would tend to subvert the competitive system. Accordingly, the protest was dismissed.