[Request for Reconsideration of Protest of HUD Contract Award for Demolition Services]
Highlights
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requested reconsideration of GAO's decision to sustain a contract award protest for the demolition of vacant buildings and related site work at public housing projects in Louisiana. GAO had held that the awardee's bid: (1) was not received at the location specified in the solicitation; and (2) did not comply with the Federal Acquisition Regulation standard for consideration of a late hand-carried bid. In its request for reconsideration, HUD contended that: (1) the solicitation did not designate a particular office for the receipt of hand-carried bids, so that the receipt of the awardee's bid in the HUD mailroom prior to bid opening should have been sufficient to render it timely received; and (2) GAO failed to adequately explain why it disregarded the contracting officer's determination that the awardee's bid was late due primarily to government mishandling. GAO held that: (1) HUD failed to show that the low bid was timely received in the office designated in the solicitation until after bid opening; and (2) the awardee failed to correctly address and mark its bid, therefore it was unreasonable for HUD to conclude that the government was primarily responsible for the lateness of the awardee's bid; and (3) HUD failed to show that GAO's prior decision contained either errors of fact or law, or presented information not previously considered that warrants reversal or modification of its decision. Accordingly, the request for reconsideration was denied.