Recent GAO Protest Reiterates Rule That a Proposal is Timely When the Agency Receives it at The Desi

Recent GAO protest reiterates the rule that a proposal is timely when the agency receives it at the designated place before the deadline. Notably, a delivery confirmation from the contractor's email system does not constitute receipt of an emailed proposal.

Briefly, the protester emailed its proposal to the designated inbox before the deadline and received an Outlook delivery confirmation. When the agency didn't acknowledge receipt, the protester called to verify. The agency didn't receive the proposal so the protester emailed it again to the designated inbox and to other agency personnel (Outlook confirmed). However, the agency never received the proposal and informed the protester it wouldn't be considered for award. Here, the proposal wasn't delivered to the designated inbox because the agency's enterprise email security gateway (EEMSG) server blocked the email. GAO found that even though the protester's proposal reached the EEMSG server, the protester failed to show that it timely delivered its proposal to the designated inbox.

Ultimately, GAO denied the protest because the protester has the burden of showing that it timely delivered its proposal at the designated place.

Takeaway

Submit proposals–and confirm delivery–well before the deadline.