“Ignorance is bliss, right? Not always. In the world of government contracting, GAO recently dismissed a protest because its initial agency protest was not timely filed, reminding the protester that ignorance of the law is no excuse.”
“In Best Practices Group, B-417768 (July 30, 2019), the VA had issued a solicitation for a contractor to maintain a VA Medical Center’s cancer registry database, with proposals due on May 13, 2019. The protester, BPG, submitted a timely proposal, but on June 13, the VA awarded the contract to another competitor. Opposing the award, BPG filed an agency-level protest with the VA on July 1, more than two weeks after the award date. BPG made two primary arguments in its agency protest, but the VA dismissed both arguments as untimely under FAR 33.103(e) (the agency protest timing rules that are similar to GAO timing rules).
“First, BPG argued that the solicitation was defective. The VA promptly dismissed this argument, as protests regarding the contents of…” Read the full article here.
Source: Ignorance is Bliss? Not When it Comes to Timely Filing of Protest, Says GAO – By Haley Claxton, August 12, 2019. SmallGovCon.
