Bolis-R-Us Catering appealed Procurement and Supply's decision denying its protest related to award of a contract for food service for the Department of Corrections, ITB 07-DOC-112. The appeal was filed late and good cause was not be found to justify considering the untimely appeal. The appeal was dismissed.

The November 27th letter from Bolis stated that Bolis received the Decision “late last week.” The exact date that the Decision was received was not stated in the November 27th letter. The copy of the Decision that was provided to OPA as an attachment to the P&S Report, however, had a handwritten receipt acknowledgment dated November 23, 2007. Bolis’ deadline to file its Appeal with OPA was December 10, 2007, ten government working days after receipt of the Decision by Bolis.9 Although the Appeal received by OPA was dated December 10th, it was not delivered to OPA until December 12, 2007. In addition, no evidence that the Appeal or the November 27th letter was filed with OPA prior to December 12, 2007, was provided by Bolis.

Bolis claimed that it “timely appealed [the Decision] on November 29, 2007,” in its December 20th response to the P&S Report. The December 20th response further stated that Bolis “properly and timely filed [its] appeal directly with Mr. Eloy Inos, as he was the official
signatory of the original contract award decision of referenced ITB, not Mr. Herman Sablan, and which copy was also furnished to Corrections Commissioner.”

The Decision was issued on November 19, 2007. Bolis admitted that it received the Decision late that week. The receipt acknowledgment on the copy of the Decision provided to OPA by P&S shows the Decision was received on November 23, 2007. In 2007, Constitution Day was celebrated as a government holiday on Friday, December 7th. As such, ten working days from receipt of the Decision was December 10, 2007. The Appeal, however, was not filed with OPA until December 12, 2007. The CNMI-PR require that the Appeal “must be received by the [O]ffice of the Public Auditor not later than ten days after the appellant receives the decision” or, in this case, December 10, 2007. Bolis did not file its Appeal timely with OPA.

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