B-299547, Northwest Heritage Consultants, May 10, 2007

B-299547 May 10, 2007 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Northwest Heritage Consultants protests the Department of Interior, National Park Service (NPS) Pacific West Region's rejection as late of its Architect-Engineer (A-E) Qualifications Statements submitted in response to solicitations Nos. N8078070176, N8078070177 and N8078070178, issued by NPS for the acquisition of A-E services for historic preservation design services at regional offices in Oakland, Seattle, and Honolulu. Northwest argues that the agency should have accepted its submissions because the protester sent them by United States Postal Service (USPS) Express Mail, and because the protester believes the USPS carrier attempted to deliver the submissions prior to the closing time for receipt. We deny the protest. View Decision B-299547, Northwest Heritage Consultants, May 10, 2007 Decision Matter of: Northwest Heritage Consultants File: B-299547 Date: May 10, 2007 William S. Hanable, Northwest Heritage Consultants, for the protester. Sherry K. Kaswell, Esq., and Alton E. Woods, Esq., Department of Interior, for the agency. Linda C. Glass, Esq., and Ralph O. White, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Agency properly declined to accept Architect-Engineer Qualifications Statements submitted after closing date for such submissions where there is no evidence that improper government action caused the United States Postal Service's failure to make timely delivery of the submissions to the agency. DECISION Northwest Heritage Consultants protests the Department of Interior, National Park Service (NPS) Pacific West Region's rejection as late of its Architect-Engineer (A-E) Qualifications Statements submitted in response to solicitations Nos. N8078070176, N8078070177 and N8078070178, issued by NPS for the acquisition of A-E services for historic preservation design services at regional offices in Oakland, Seattle, and Honolulu. Northwest argues that the agency should have accepted its submissions because the protester sent them by United States Postal Service (USPS) Express Mail, and because the protester believes the USPS carrier attempted to deliver the submissions prior to the closing time for receipt. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND On November 17, 2006, NPS published three notices in FedBizOpps seeking Letters of Interest and A-E Qualifications Statements. Agency Report (AR), Tabs VIII A-C. The notices, as amended, required vendors to submit their responses by 2 p.m. on December 22, 2006. Responses were to be mailed or hand-carried to: National Park Service, Pacific West Regional Office ATTN: Gary C. Harris 1111 Jackson Street, Suite 700 Oakland, CA94607 The following information was to be placed on the outside of the sealed envelope containing each response: the solicitation number/title; the due date; and the closing time. All three solicitations provided that late responses would be handled in accordance with the provisions of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) sect. 15.208. By the December 22 closing time, the agency received numerous timely submissions in response to each of the three solicitations. No response was received from the protester. Five days later, on December 27, the contracting officer (CO) received a Federal Express (FEDEX) package from Northwest that did not identify, on the face of the envelope, the solicitation number or closing time. CO's Statement at 1. On December 28, Northwest sent an email to the CO inquiring about the status of its responses to the three solicitations. The CO states that he then examined the package, opened the envelope and discovered three submissions from Northwest. Id.By letters dated January 8, 2007, the CO advised Northwest that its submissions in response to the three solicitations were received by NPS on December 27, which was after the date and time specified in the solicitations, and that the submissions would not be evaluated or considered for award. AR, Tab V, CO's Letters to the Protester. On January 10, Northwest sent an email to the contracting officer explaining that the FEDEX package was its second attempt to deliver its submissions to the agency. AR, Tab IV, Jan. 10 Email. The protester stated that an earlier package of submissions was sent by USPS Express Mail, and asserted that the USPS carrier attempted to deliver the submissions prior to the deadline, but found no one available to sign for the package. The protester included a copy of the USPS tracking record which indicated that the submissions were mailed on December 20, and stated, in its entirety, –Notice Left, December 22, 2006, 11:22a.m., Oakland, CA94607.— Protest, attach. 3.