JEQ & Company, LLC

B-415338.8 May 09, 2019 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights JEQ & Company, LLC (JEQ), of Virginia Beach, Virginia, asks that we reconsider our decision in JEQ & Co., LLC, B-415338.2 et al., Feb. 12, 2019 (unpublished decision). In that decision we dismissed JEQ's protest regarding a wide range of complaints concerning actions by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), including a challenge to the award of a purchase order under solicitation No. SPE7M2-17-T-4444. We deny the request for reconsideration. View Decision Decision Matter of: JEQ & Company, LLC--Reconsideration File: B-415338.8 Date: May 9, 2019 Jacob Queern, JEQ & Company, LLC, for the requester. Adam J. Heer, Esq., Defense Logistics Agency, for the agency. Young H. Cho, Esq., and Peter H. Tran, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Request for reconsideration of prior decision is denied where the requesting party has not shown that our decision contains either errors of fact or law or information not previously considered that warrants reversal or modification of the decision. DECISION JEQ & Company, LLC (JEQ), of Virginia Beach, Virginia, asks that we reconsider our decision in JEQ & Co., LLC, B-415338.2 et al., Feb. 12, 2019 (unpublished decision). In that decision we dismissed JEQ's protest regarding a wide range of complaints concerning actions by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), including a challenge to the award of a purchase order under solicitation No. SPE7M2-17-T-4444. We deny the request for reconsideration. BACKGROUND On September 25, 2017, JEQ filed an agency-level protest with DLA by email, challenging the award of a purchase order under solicitation No. SPE7M2-17-T-4444. JEQ & Co., LLC, supra at 1-2; Protest, exh. 6, at 1.1 In submitting its agency-level protest to DLA, JEQ also copied our Office and the Small Business Administration (SBA) on the same email. Protest, exh. 6, at 1. In response, our Office sent a letter to JEQ on October 23, 2017, referenced as file number B-415338.1, acknowledging receipt of the informational copy of JEQ's agency-level protest with DLA. Our letter to JEQ, however, did not consider JEQ's email to DLA to be a protest to our Office. Instead, our letter referred JEQ to section 21.2(a)(3) of our Bid Protest Regulations (4 C.F.R. Part 21) and explained that any subsequent protest to our Office must be filed within 10 calendar days of actual or constructive knowledge of initial adverse action by the agency on the protest that was filed with DLA. Id. This letter also advised JEQ of the requirements for a submission to be regarded as a protest to GAO, which included, among other things, being "addressed to the General Counsel, Government Accountability Office," and requesting "a ruling by the Comptroller General."2 Id. In the more than a year and a half since October 2017, our Office has not received any further information on this agency-level protest. On February 4, 2019, JEQ filed with our Office the protest docketed as B-415338.2.3 See generally Protest. In its protest, despite recognizing and providing a copy of the October 23, 2017 letter from GAO, JEQ asserted that it was not until February 4, 2019 that it "gained actual or constructive notice of initial adverse agency action," which JEQ describes as our Office's failure to "process" JEQ's protest challenging the award of a purchase order under solicitation No. SPE7M2 17-T-4444. Compare Protest at 1 with Protest, exh. 6 at 33. To establish timeliness, JEQ provided a copy of a screenshot from our website dated February 4, 2019, showing that there were no bid protests filed with our Office that had been assigned file number B-415338.4 Protest, exh. 6 at 35-36. That said, the protest also acknowledged it might be viewed as untimely, and requested that our Office consider it under the significant issue or good cause exceptions to our timeliness rules. See 4 C.F.R. § 21.2(c). On February 12, 2019, we dismissed JEQ's protest as untimely. See generally JEQ & Co., LLC, supra. In this dismissal, we explained that where a protest has been timely filed first with a contracting activity, any subsequent protest to our Office, to be considered timely, generally must be filed within 10 calendar days of "actual or constructive knowledge of initial adverse agency action." 4 C.F.R. § 21.2(a)(3). Our decision also explained that a protester may wait only a reasonable length of time for an agency to take action before filing its protest with our Office. Id. at 2 (citing Advanced Seal Tech., Inc., B-242236, Mar. 7, 1991, 91-1 CPD ¶ 257 at 3). Here, where JEQ filed its agency-level protest with DLA in September 2017, we do not consider reasonable, JEQ's decision to wait more than a year and a half to pursue its protest with our Office.