In today’s world, everything is done electronically. As a result, many contractors send in proposals using the delivery receipt option to show proof of submission in a timely manner.
In ManTech Advanced Systems International, Inc., B-414985, (Oct. 20, 2017), the GAO looked at a proposal submitted by ManTech to provide cyber security services to the Air Force under a task order solicitation against the Air Force’s Cyber Security and Information Systems Technical Tasks IDIQ.
The solicitation stated that the proposals were to be submitted electronically via e-mail to the contract specialist no later than 1:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time on July 17, 2017. The solicitation provided that receipt of proposals would be acknowledged by return e-mail.
ManTech sent its proposal to the designated email address on July 17, 2017, at 1:25 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) “and received confirmation of completed delivery through its Microsoft Outlook delivery receipt feature.”
Between 1:30 and 2 p.m. EDT, ManTech tried to confirm receipt. When they contacted the Air Force, they were told the proposal had not been received, so they resent it to the designated inbox, the person who told them it had not been received, and the contract specialist.
Finally, the agency told ManTech to stop trying because it was past the deadline and since the proposal hadn’t been received on time, the agency hadn’t considered ManTech for award.
ManTech protested, stating the Air Force should have considered the proposal because the proposal was submitted in a timely manner to the correct email address and they had a “read receipt” to prove it.
ManTech was using email tracking records from its Microsoft Outlook system. They submitted a declaration from their Director of Network Services saying “since it did not receive a bounce back indicating that the e-mail containing the proposal had been rejected, it must have been accepted by the agency’s e-mail exchange server.”
The Air Force responded by tracing the path of an email to its email system:
When an e-mail is sent to any recipient that is at an organization that is part of the Department of Defense, it is first scanned by the enterprise e-mail security gateway (EEMSG) for malicious content. EEMSG delivers the e-mail to the recipient’s e-mail exchange server if no malicious content is found. The recipient’s e-mail exchange server then performs additional scans based on the specific policies of the recipient organization. The recipient’s server can block, quarantine, drop, or deliver the e-mail to the recipient’s e-mail box. The Air Force reports that the e-mails sent by ManTech were received by the EEMSG system, which scanned them and attempted to deliver them to the specified Air Force e-mail address. However, based on the content, they were rejected by the Air Force server. ManTech did not receive a bounce back because the EEMSG inbound system cannot initiate a connection to the internet.
GAO wrote that “[i]t is an offeror’s responsibility to deliver its proposal to the proper place at the proper time.” Moreover, the offeror “has the burden of showing that it timely delivered its proposal to the agency at the specified address.”
Here, “ManTech has demonstrated that it timely sent its proposal to the agency, and that it reached the EEMSG server.” However, “ManTech has failed to establish that its proposal was actually delivered to the agency’s designated e-mail prior to the time set for the receipt of proposals, and thus, has failed to meet its burden of showing the proposal was timely delivered to the agency.”
Bottom line is that it is up to the offeror to confirm receipt of a proposal regardless of how it is submitted. And using the email system’s “read receipt” function may not be enough to prove you sent it.