Today’s public service announcement comes to us courtesy of the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals.  Here it is: asking for and receiving a debriefing does not extend the deadline to file a SBA size protest.  Asking for a debriefing may extend the time frame for filing a GAO bid protest but does not extend the five-business-day period for filing a SBA size protest.

Case in point: the decision of SBA OHA in Size Appeal of Garco Construction, Inc., SBA No. SIZ-5308 (2011).  In that case, a small business learned of award to a competitor on September 26, but waited until after it received its debriefing on October 21 to file its SBA size protest.  The small business argued that its size protest should be considered timely, because it has no knowledge of the grounds of protest until after the debriefing.

Nice try.  SBA OHA made short work of this argument, stating “that a protester did not learn of the grounds for its protest until the debriefing is no basis for extending the deadline for filing a protest.”  SBA OHA held that the SBA Area Office had properly dismissed the size protest as untimely.

And that concludes today’s public service announcement for small government contractors.  As they say on NBC, “The More You Know.”