Bid Protest - Where to Send a Protest

WHERE TO SEND A PROTEST

Protests must be addressed to the General Counsel, Government Accountability Office, 441 G St., N.W., Washington, DC 20548, Attention: Procurement Law Control Group. 4 C.F.R. § 21.1(b). GAO's office hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., eastern time, Monday through Friday.

Protests may be filed by hand delivery, mail, commercial carrier, fax, or e-mail. 4 C.F.R. § 21.0(g). Protests filed by hand delivery or commercial carrier must be delivered to the window located in the G Street lobby in GAO's main building at the above-referenced address.

Filing Protests By Hand Delivery

Hand delivery to the window may not be possible during certain periods due to security or other concerns. When this is the case, protesters must avail themselves of one of the alternative filing methods.

Filing Protest By Fax

Protesters filing their protests by fax should verify GAO's fax number prior to transmission. GAO's current official bid protest fax number is (202) 512-9749. Fax users should take into account the risk that GAO's receiving fax machine might be busy, particularly near the end of a business day. GAO will time/date stamp a fax transmission as of the time the last page is received, which may affect the timeliness of the entire submission. Additional recorded information concerning the filing of protests at GAO may be obtained by calling GAO's Procurement Law Control Group at (202) 512-5282.

Filing Protests By E-Mail

Protests filed by e-mail should be addressed to Protests@gao.gov. Upon our receipt of an e-mailed protest, the protester will be sent an automatic confirming e-mail reply. This reply also will advise that assignment and status information is available on our on-line Bid Protest Docket, accessible via the Legal Products link on GAO's Internet home page (www.gao.gov), or by calling our protest status line at 202-512-5436. Where protests filed by e-mail include attachments containing multiple documents, the attachments should include an index identifying the documents and their location in the attachment.

A copy of the protest, including all attachments, must be filed with the individual or location identified for that purpose in a solicitation, or with the contracting officer, within 1 day after the protest is filed with GAO. 4 C.F.R. § 21.1(e).

Risk of Timely Receipt

Protesters should be aware that, whatever method of transmission they choose, they bear the risk that their protest will not be received at GAO in a timely manner.