Hello Readers! We have three events this month that we’d like to invite you to attend. All three events are complimentary, so we hope to see you there!
First off, on February 9, we have a webinar about the FAR Supplement for 2022 that is specific to the Army – AFARS. The presenters for this event are Nicole Pottroff and John Holtz. Register here.
Next, on February 16, we have a webinar about the FAR Supplement for 2022 that is specific to the Air Force – AFFARS. The pres
A non-SDVOSB company couldn’t protest the terms of a VA SDVOSB set-aside solicitation, despite entering into a joint venture agreement with an SDVOSB–because the joint venture hadn’t started the process of becoming verified by the VA.
In a recent bid protest decision, GAO held that because neither the protester nor the joint venture was included in the VIP database, or likely to be included during the protest process, the protester wasn’t an “interested party” under the GAO’s bid protest regula
Of late the pages of this blog have been entirely coronavirus and COVID-19 obsessed—and for good reason. But that does not stop the Government Accountability Office from deciding bid protests.
With all that’s been going on, writing about a GAO decision regarding run-of-the-mill unreasonable cost realism evaluation is downright refreshing.
According to the opinion, Sayres and Associates Corp. protested a task order award the Navy awarded to Reliability and Performance Technologies d
When a small business sells products to the government under a contract designated with a manufacturing NAICS code, the small business either must be the “manufacturer” of the products, or separately qualify under the nonmanufacturer rule. The nonmanufacturer rule, in turn, requires the prime contractor to have no more than 500 employees, whereas manufacturers may fall under larger size standards–some as big as 1,500 employees.
But what about an unpopulated joint venture that doesn’t itsel
I’m pleased to announce a new learning opportunity from me and my colleague Steven Koprince! There’s been some big changes for government contractors over the last year, so it’s important to sort through them all.
To aid that process, we will be presenting “Government Contracts Legal Update 2020,” a virtual event hosted by the University of Texas San Antonio PTAC. The event will take place on October 22 from 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM (CDT). More information can be found here.
The post University
In its evaluation of proposals, a procuring agency gave a challenger a strength for proposing to recruit incumbent employees, but didn’t give the incumbent contractor a strength–even though the incumbent contractor proposed to retain the very same people.
Unsurprisingly, the GAO found that the evaluation was unequal, and sustained the incumbent’s protest.
The GAO’s decision in SURVICE Engineering Company, LLC, B-414519 (July 5, 2o17) involved an Air Force solicitation for engineering, progra
An offeror’s proposal was properly rejected as late because the proposal exceeded the agency’s email file size limit.
In a recent bid protest decision highlighting, the GAO held that a small business’s proposal was late because the emails transmitting the proposal exceeded 10 MB–even though the solicitation didn’t mention a file size limit.
The GAO’s decision in Washington Coach Corporation, B-413809 (Dec. 28, 2016) involved a VA solicitation for executive driver transportation
Under FAR Part 15 negotiated procurements, an agency must give notice and an opportunity to request a debriefing to offerors eliminated from the competitive range. But the notice requirement does not apply for task and delivery order procurements under FAR Part 16 where FAR Part 15 is inapplicable.
A recent GAO decision highlights this distinction.
The Department of Education issued multiple solicitations to meet IT requirements. One RFQ, the PIVOT H solicitation, was for hosting of applicat
The COVID-19
pandemic threatens to stretch Americans’ medical resources incredibly thin.
From disposable face masks to respirators, there is real concern that current
supplies will be insufficient to treat the anticipated influx of COVID-19
patients. To address this problem, many have pointed to the Defense Production
Act as a way to increase production of this essential equipment. This is
largely because the Defense Production Act substantially modifies some of the
core government contracting p
The COVID-19
pandemic threatens to stretch Americans’ medical resources incredibly thin.
From disposable face masks to respirators, there is real concern that current
supplies will be insufficient to treat the anticipated influx of COVID-19
patients. To address this problem, many have pointed to the Defense Production
Act as a way to increase production of this essential equipment. This is
largely because the Defense Production Act substantially modifies some of the
core government contracting p
An 8(a) joint venture failed to obtain SBA’s approval of an addendum to its joint venture agreement—and the lack of SBA approval cost the joint venture an 8(a) contract.
In Alutiiq-Banner Joint Venture, B-412952 et al. (July 15, 2016), GAO sustained a protest challenging an 8(a) joint venture’s eligibility for award where that joint venture had not previously sought (or received) SBA’s approval for an addendum to its joint venture agreement.
At the big picture level, SBA’s 8(a) Business Deve
Earlier this month, the GSA announced a new Unique Entity Identifier Standard for Federal awards management. The new standard will go into effect December 2020. It will replace the current DUNS number system as the official identifier for all businesses contracting with the U.S. Federal Government. This should make registering to do business with the federal government a little easier, but the proof will be in the roll-out.
The GSA’s Office of Systems Management, Integrated Award Enviro
Please join Jackie Lopez, President of Premier Enterprise Solutions, LLC, and me as we discuss both the operational and legal perspective of teaming strategies, the importance of teaming, limitations of subcontracting, why you should use a teaming agreement and much more in part 1 of this 2 part webinar series. We’re pleased to offer both
Event information and registration can be found at this link. I hope you will join us!
The post U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs Webinar Event: Tues
GAO sustained a protest recently where an agency had given higher past performance scores to a proposal with two relevant examples of past performance than a proposal with five relevant examples.
In Patricio Enterprises, Inc., B-412740 et al. (Comp. Gen. May 26, 2016), GAO said that an agency cannot mechanically apply an evaluation formula that produces an unreasonable result, such as allowing a proposal with fewer examples of relevant past performance to somehow earn a higher score than a prop
When submitting an offer, it is important to make sure that all the requirements of the solicitation are met. This is essentially Federal Government Contracting 101 and applies to any type of solicitation. In RELX, Inc., B-421597.2, 2023 CPD ¶ 262 (Comp. Gen. Nov. 17, 2023), GAO looked at this issue in the context of a lowest-price, technically acceptable (LPTA) solicitation for a brand name or better product, with an unexpected ending that the protester surely did not see coming.
Brand
One of the most frequent questions we get is “How do I know the size of my business?”
Well, if you’re in an annual receipts-based NAICS code, the SBA regulation has the formula. We made a handy-dandy YouTube video to run you through it. Enjoy!
To see more videos from Koprince Law, click here.
View the full article
We previously have written about the trending preference toward fixed-price contracts, and away from cost reimbursement contracts, in defense procurements. The Defense Department’s supplement to the FAR (known as DFARS), in fact, already includes restrictions on using cost-reimbursement or time and materials contracts.
Now the President has come out in favor of fixed-price defense contracting. In a Time Magazine article published today, President Trump signaled strong support for the fixed-pri
President Donald Trump won’t repeal former President Obama’s 2014 Executive Order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
According to CNN and other news outlets, the new Administration will allow Executive Order 13672 to remain on the books. The Executive Order, which was codified in the FAR in 2015, adds sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected categories under the FAR’s Equal Opportunity clause, FAR 5
Without wanting to make the audience feel too old, I was not yet born when Transformers was a pop culture phenomenon. Still, it’s a simple but fun concept: robots that transform to and from cool vehicles. Regardless of what form they take, they are still the same character.
The same cannot be said of government contractors submitting an initial bid for the first phase of a solicitation as a prime contractor and a bid as a member of a contractor teaming agreement (CTA) for the second phase of
2021 was a big year for many reasons, among them the continued COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s responses to the pandemic, including the various vaccine mandates and lawsuits challenging those mandates. But there were also lower-profile changes and updates to the federal contracting world. Below, I’ll explore the posts that were most popular in 2021, along with the posts first published in 2021 that were popular this year.
Most Popular Posts Read in 2021
The top posts from the
The SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program is the crème de la crème of federal government contracting and there are two ways for an individual and its business to get into the program. First, individuals can gain admission to the program by being a member of one of the recognized groups individuals that is automatically presumed to be socially and economically disadvantaged. If an individual does not fall into one of the presumed socially and economically disadvantaged groups, the individual mu
Just hours before the May 14 deadline for businesses to return “unnecessary” Paycheck Protection Program loans without penalties, the SBA has published new guidance on how it will review borrowers’ required good-faith certifications.
As we discussed here, on April 28, the SBA published an interim rule on the PPP, which included a “Limited Safe Harbor with Respect to Certification Concerning Need for PPP Loan Request.” When applying for a PPP loan, businesses are required to certify that
In a recent decision, GAO dismissed a protest challenging the USDA’s issuance of a lease contract as untimely where the protester’s communications with the agency did not constitute an agency-level protest, and the protest was filed more than 10 days after the notice that formed the basis of its protest was received by the protester.
In October 2019, the USDA issued a 20-year request for lease proposal (RLP) for office space in Red Bluff, California to be awarded to the lowest-priced, te
In Warrior Service Company, LLC, SBA No. SIZ-6046 (Jan. 24, 2020), the SBA reminded small business contractors that it determines whether a contractor has violated the ostensible subcontractor rule as of the date of bid submission; SBA won’t consider any changes that come later.
In July 2018, the VA issued Request for Proposals No. 36C24618R0507 for home oxygen delivery services in Virginia and North Carolina. In particular, the contractor was required to provide “all supplies, material
Time. It’s a great Pink Floyd song. It’s also something that frequently trips up contractors filing protests before GAO. As one contractor recently discovered, a challenge to the salient characteristics of a brand name product is equivalent to challenging the terms of a solicitation, which carries a different protest deadline than evaluation challenges. Unfortunately for the protester, its argument did not fair nearly as well as one of David Gilmour’s solos.
Sarandrea Associates Group Co
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