____________________________________________________ DISMISSED FOR LACK OF JURISDICTION: February 6, 1997 ____________________________________________________ GSBCA 13883 GATEWAY EL PASO BUSINESS CENTER ASSOCIATES, L.P., Appellant, v. GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION, Respondent. Cheryl S. Willoughby, Senior Vice President of BGK Realty Inc., Santa Fe, NM, appearing for Appellant. T. Cass Taliaferro and Mark Alan Duffy, Office of Regional Counsel, General Services Administration, Fort Worth, TX, counsel for Respondent. Before Board Judges DANIELS (Chairman), PARKER, and NEILL. NEILL, Board Judge. This case concerns a claim by appellant for payment of $8,245. Appellant states that the claim represents the cost of replacing carpeting in a building it leased to the General Services Administration (GSA). In a decision issued on June 18, 1996, the contracting officer denied the claim, stating that this was not a cost to be borne by the Government. The Contract Disputes Act of 1978 provides that an appeal to a board of contract appeals of a contracting officer's decision is timely only if it is filed within ninety days of the contractor's receipt of the decision. 41 U.S.C.  606 (1994). GSA represents that on June 26, 1996, it received a return mail receipt indicating that the contracting officer's decision had been received by appellant. Assuming, therefore, that the decision was received by appellant certainly no later than June 26, an appeal of the decision, to be timely filed, should have been filed, at the very latest, by September 24, 1996. The Board's records, however, show that the appeal was filed on September 27. GSA has moved that the appeal be dismissed as untimely filed. Upon receipt of this motion the Board issued an order for appellant to show cause why the motion should not be granted. Appellant in reply has stated that it has "no paramount excuse as to why the appeal was filed a few days late" but asks, nonetheless, that we hear the appeal. Because the time limitation is part of a statute waiving sovereign immunity, it must be strictly construed. The Board may not consider personal circumstances or equity or in any other way exercise discretion as to acceptance of an appeal filed later than the statutory deadline. We have no jurisdiction to hear such a case. Cosmic Construction Co. v. United States, 697 F.2d 1389 (Fed. Cir. 1982). Decision We, therefore, DISMISS this appeal FOR LACK OF JURISDICTION. _____________________ EDWIN B. NEILL Board Judge We concur: _____________________ _____________________ STEPHEN M. DANIELS ROBERT W. PARKER Board Judge Board Judge