Decision released in protest denial of CIA financial consulting support services requirement

DIGEST

Protest challenging agency’s decision to cancel a solicitation is dismissed as untimely where the protest was filed with our Office more than 10 days after the protester received initial notice of adverse agency action in the protester’s underlying agency-level protest.

DISCUSSION

BDO maintains that, in the agency-level protest decision, the CIA “agreed that it had not conducted a sufficient analysis of Deloitte’s OCIs,” but rather than performing the required analysis, the CIA instead “arbitrarily decided to cancel the Solicitation.”  Protest at 1.  BDO contends that the CIA’s decision to cancel the solicitation “does not provide the relief requested in BDO’s agency-level protest,” “lacks sufficient justification, is disproportionate to the problem, and, is unreasonable under established GAO precedent.”  Id. at 1-2.  Based on these contentions, BDO argues that the CIA’s decision to cancel the solicitation “is pretextual and an attempt to avoid further review of the underlying OCIs.”  Id. at 2.  The CIA requests that we dismiss BDO’s protest as untimely “because BDO had actual knowledge of the Agency’s initial adverse action on August 21, 2023, when” the CIA notified BDO’s counsel of the agency’s intent to cancel the solicitation, but BDO “did not file its GAO protest until September 11, 2023–more than 10 days after BDO received this actual notice.”  Req. for Dismissal at 2-3.  For the reasons explained below, we agree that dismissal is appropriate under our regulations.  Our Bid Protest Regulations contain strict rules for the timely submission of protests.  These rules reflect the dual requirements of giving parties a fair opportunity to present their cases and resolving protests expeditiously without unduly disrupting or delaying the procurement process.  Lifecare Mgmt. Partners, B-297078, B-297078.2, Nov. 21, 2005, 2006 CPD ¶ 8 at 10-11.  When a protest first has been filed with a contracting activity, any subsequent protest to our Office, to be considered timely, 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).  The term “adverse agency action” means “any action or inaction by an agency that is prejudicial to the position taken in a protest filed with the agency.”  4 C.F.R. § 21.0(e) (emphasis added)…

DECISION

BDO Public Sector, LLC (BDO), a large business of McLean, Virginia, protests the agency’s decision to cancel request for proposals (RFP) No. IRV-23-23, issued by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for financial consulting support services.  The protester argues that the agency lacks a reasonable basis to cancel the solicitation, and contends that the cancellation is therefore a pretext to avoid resolving BDO’s agencylevel protest allegation of multiple organizational conflicts of interest (OCIs) on the part of the only other competitor to submit a proposal (Deloitte Consulting LLP).  We dismiss the protest as untimely.

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