A2A Integrated Logistics, Inc. (B-423433)

You should not care.

Category: Timeliness

Date: 20 May 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/B-423433

A2A Integrated Logistics, Inc. (A2A), a service-disabled veteran-owned small business, protested the award of a contract by VA under RFQ No. 36C24425Q0297 for media systems, digitizing/document scanning software, and training services. A2A contended its quotation was the best value and that the agency's server improperly rejected its quotation.

The RFQ closing date was 10 February 2025, and the VA announced the award on 19 February 2025. On 20 February, A2A emailed the contracting officer stating it was unable to submit its quotation due to a technical error. The VA responded on 12 March, explaining it had not received A2A's quotation. A2A then filed an agency-level protest on 12 March, which VA dismissed as untimely on 27 March. A2A filed its protest with GAO on 1 April.

GAO found that A2A knew or should have known the basis for its protest regarding the server rejection on 20 February, when it acknowledged its bid failed to reach the agency. The basis for protesting the award itself arose on 19 February, the date of award announcement. Under GAO’s Bid Protest Regulations, protests generally must be filed within ten days of when the protester knew or should have known the basis for protest.

The protest was dismissed because A2A failed to file its agency-level protest within the ten-day timeframe stipulated by GAO's regulations after it knew or should have known the bases of its protest.

Digest

Protest challenging the agency's award of a contract and the rejection of the protester's quotation by the agency's server is dismissed where the protest was filed more than 10 days after the protester knew or should have known the basis for its protest.