The Department of Homeland Security’s procurement for border wall prototypes is a complex, controversial procurement by any measure.  But one protest of that procurement has recently been dismissed for a simple reason: the protester failed to timely submit comments on the agency report.

Bid protests at the Government Accountability Office are notorious for their fast and rigid deadlines.  One such deadline requires that protester comments on the agency report be filed within ten calendar days of receiving the agency report — barring an extension from GAO, which must be granted before the deadline passes.  A protester cannot opt to skip comments and rest on its initial protest.  If it fails to timely submit comments, GAO will dismiss its protest.

PennaGroup, LLC protested its exclusion from the second of two phases of the border wall–prototype procurement.  The solicitations required “offerors to acknowledge any issued amendment by signing the accompanying Standard Form 30 (SF-30), and to submit the SF-30 with each offeror’s proposal.”  PennaGroup’s proposals were eliminated from the competition for both the solid concrete prototype and the other-than-solid-concrete prototype because it failed to include SF-30s acknowledging the first six of seven RFP amendments.Continue Reading Border Wall Protest Dismissed After Protester Fails to Timely Submit Comments