Board of Contract Appeals
                 General Services Administration
                      Washington, D.C. 20405



      _____________________________________________________

       DISMISSED FOR LACK OF JURISDICTION:  April 11, 2005
      _____________________________________________________


                           GSBCA 16606


                     METRO RECYCLING COMPANY,

                                                  Appellant,

                                v.

                 GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION,

                                                  Respondent.

     Charles Francis, President of Metro Recycling Company, Cincinnati, OH, appearing
for Appellant.

     Jan Stephenson Cohn, Office of Regional Counsel, General Services Administration,
Chicago, IL, counsel for Respondent.

Before Board Judges PARKER, NEILL, and HYATT.

PARKER, Board Judge.

     The General Services Administration (GSA) moves to dismiss as untimely filed
Metro Recycling Company's (Metro's) appeal of a contracting officer's decision in
connection with a contract to provide recycling services.  We grant the motion and dismiss
the appeal.
                           Background

     The contract at issue provided that Metro would pick up recyclable material from a
building in Washington, D.C., and then pay GSA for the material according to its weight and
type.  In mid-2003, Metro asserted that it had been required to load, unload, and store un-
recyclable material and sought a credit for that work against the amounts the firm owed GSA
for the recyclable material.  GSA, for the most part, disagreed with Metro's assertion.

     After a largely unsuccessful attempt at mediation, GSA's contracting officer issued
a decision on August 3, 2004, issuing a credit to Metro in the amount of $8685.96.  Metro
responded on August 10, 2004, with a claim for $10,085 in additional credits.

     On September 24, 2004, the contracting officer issued a final decision denying most
of Metro's claim.  Delivery of the decision was confirmed by Federal Express to have
occurred on September 27, 2004.

     Metro appealed the contracting officer's decision to this Board on February 28, 2005,
which is 154 days after Metro received the decision.

                            Discussion
     
     In D.L. Braughler Co. v. West, 127 F.3d 1476 (Fed. Cir. 1997), the United States
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit repeated longstanding statutory rules for filing a
timely appeal of a contracting officer's decision:
     
          Following receipt of a contracting officer's final decision, a contractor
     has ninety days to appeal the decision to the appropriate agency board of
     contract appeals.   41 U.S.C.   606.  If a timely appeal is not lodged, the
     contracting officer's decision on the claim "shall be final and conclusive and
     not subject to review by any forum, tribunal, or Government agency." 
     41 U.S.C.   605(b).  If no appeal to the Board is taken within the ninety day
     statutory period set forth in section 606, the Board has no jurisdiction to hear
     the claim. 

Id. at 1480 (footnote omitted); CWI Consultants & Services v. General Services
Administration, GSBCA 13889, 98-2 BCA   29,343.  The ninety-day deadline is part of a
statute waiving sovereign immunity, which must be strictly construed, and the Board has no
power to waive it.  Cosmic Construction  Co. v. United States, 697 F.2d 1389, 1390 (Fed.
Cir. 1982).

     The Board lacks jurisdiction to consider Metro's appeal because the firm did not file
its notice of appeal within the statutory ninety-day period.  Metro received the contracting
officer's decision on September 27, 2004, but did not file an appeal until February 28, 2005,
well after the statutory ninety-day period had expired.

                             Decision

     The appeal is DISMISSED FOR LACK OF JURISDICTION.



                                   ________________________
                                   ROBERT W. PARKER
                                   Board Judge

We concur:



__________________________              ________________________
EDWIN B. NEILL                     CATHERINE B. HYATT
Board Judge                             Board Judge