[Protest of VA Rejection of Bid for Equipment Management]

A firm protested the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) rejection of its bid and subsequent contract award for equipment management systems, contending that: (1) VA should have awarded it the contract, since its alternate product met VA minimum needs; and (2) many of the solicitation's specifications were insignificant and arbitrary. GAO held that: (1) VA properly rejected the protester's bid as nonresponsive, since the protester failed to include sufficient descriptive literature that demonstrated that its product complied with the solicitation's brand-name specifications; and (2) the protester untimely filed its protest against the alleged arbitrary solicitation specifications. Accordingly, the protest was denied in part and dismissed in part.