Worrell Contracting Company, Inc. (B-423208)

You should not care.

Category: Protest timeliness

Date: 22 January 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423208

Worrell Contracting Company, Inc., a service-disabled veteran-owned small business, protested its exclusion from a VA competition for grounds maintenance services at Washington Crossing National Cemetery. The protest argued that VA's late posting of an amendment to the solicitation on SAM.gov—just hours before the original due date—failed to provide adequate notice or sufficient time to respond, and that this ultimately resulted in Worrell's disqualification for not acknowledging the amendment:

• Timeliness of protest: GAO dismissed the protest as untimely, because challenges to solicitation amendments must be filed before the new due date for quotes, that is, preaward.
• Constructive notice: GAO ruled that Worrell was charged with constructive notice of the amendment once it was posted to SAM.gov, which is the official government-wide point of entry for procurement actions.
• Adequacy of response time: The amendment extended the due date by three days, which GAO deemed sufficient under simplified acquisition procedures, contrary to Worrell's claim of unfairness.

GAO dismissed.

Digest

Protest challenging adequacy of notice provided for solicitation amendment is dismissed as untimely where protest was not filed before the new due date for quotations established by the amendment.