BNUMBER:  B-274803.3 
DATE:  April 29, 1997
TITLE:  Matter of:Keymiaee Aero-Tech, Inc.--Reconsideration

**********************************************************************

Matter of:Keymiaee Aero-Tech, Inc.--Reconsideration

File:     B-274803.3

Date:April 29, 1997

Michael Saiedi for the protester.
Joseph Carroll, Esq., Department of Justice, for the agency.
Paul E. Jordan, Esq., and Paul Lieberman, Esq., Office of the General 
Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.

DIGEST

Request for reconsideration of prior decision dismissing protest for 
failure to file comments responding to agency report is denied where 
record is clear that protester neither submitted comments to our 
Office nor requested extension of time for filing within 10-day period 
permitted for submitting comments.

DECISION

Keymiaee Aero-Tech, Inc. requests reconsideration of our dismissal of 
its protest against the award of a contract by the Department of 
Justice under solicitation 
No. 1PI-R-0509-96.  We dismissed Keymiaee's protest for failure to 
file comments in response to the agency's administrative report.  In 
its request for reconsideration, Keymiaee maintains that our earlier 
dismissal was improper because Keymiaee submitted its comments within 
10 days of receiving the agency report.

We deny the request for reconsideration. 

The agency's administrative report submitted in response to Keymiaee's 
protest was due on December 4, 1996.  The agency submitted its report 
to our Office on December 3.  Because the protester did not otherwise 
advise us, we assumed, in accordance with our Bid Protest Regulations, 
4 C.F.R.  sec.  21.3(i) (1997), that the protester received the report not 
later than December 4, making its comments due in our Office not later 
than December 16.  Since we did not receive comments from Keymiaee by 
that date, we dismissed its protest on December 20.

On January 9, 1997, Keymiaee requested reconsideration and enclosed a 
copy of a letter dated December 10, which responded to the agency's 
report.  Keymiaee states that it had transmitted this letter to our 
Office by telefacsimile (fax) on December 10. 

The filing deadlines in our regulations are prescribed under the 
authority of the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984; their purpose 
is to enable us to comply with the statute's mandate that we 
expeditiously resolve bid protests.  31 U.S.C.A.  sec.  3554 (West Supp. 
1997); Unicorn Servs., Inc.--Recon., B-252429.3, May 28, 1993, 93-1 
CPD  para.  425 at 3.  It is not our policy to reopen a protest file where 
the protester has failed to respond in a timely manner to the agency 
report, since to do so would be inconsistent with that purpose.  
Fisons Instruments-Recon., B-254939.2, Dec. 8, 1993, 93-2 CPD  para.  310 at 
2.  As reflected in our protest acknowledgment notice, our regulations 
specifically provide that we will assume that a protester has received 
the agency report not later than the scheduled due date specified in 
the acknowledgment notice, unless we are otherwise advised by the 
protester; if we do not hear from the protester in a timely manner, 
our regulations provide for dismissal of the protest.  4 C.F.R.  sec.  
21.3(i).

Keymiaee's arguments provide no basis for us to reopen its protest.  
Although Keymiaee claims that it faxed its comments to our Office, it 
has submitted no proof of this.  Instead, Keymiaee explains that the 
fax machine it used does not print a receipt showing the date and time 
a document is sent.  It also advises us that it did not send these 
comments to the agency as it was required to do.  Bid Protest 
Regulations, 4 C.F.R.  sec.  21.3(i).  Our records in this case indicate 
that no comments on the report were received and our fax machine log 
provides no evidence that anything was received by our Office from 
Keymiaee on December 10.  In the absence of any evidence of the timely 
submission of its comments, we decline to reconsider our dismissal of 
Keymiaee's protest.

The request for reconsideration is denied.

Comptroller General
of the United States