Protester Cannot Be Readmitted to Competition After Rejecting Agency’s Request to Extend Proposal Acceptance Date; GAO B-414198.2, Western Star Hospital Authority Inc.

Protest of the award of a short-term contract on a sole-source basis pending implementation of corrective action is dismissed as untimely, where the protester filed its protest more than 10 days after the J&A announcing the agency’s intention to award the sole-source contract, and where its objection to the agency’s request to extend its proposal acceptance period did not amount to an agency-level protest that would have reset the 10-day deadline for submitting a protest; and protest of the agency’s elimination of the protester’s proposal from award consideration is denied, where the protester expressly refused to extend its proposal acceptance period as requested and the proposal could not be revived because it would compromise the integrity of the competitive bidding system.