The SBA has corrected a flaw in the profit-splitting provisions of its new joint venture regulations.
Under the corrected regulations, which became effective on December 27, all of the SBA’s joint venture regulations–those for small businesses, SDVOSBs, HUBZones, 8(a)s, and WOSBs–will require that each joint venturer receive profits commensurate with the work it performs. The SBA’s revisions clear up an inconsistency between the 8(a) joint venture regulations and the regulations for the SBA’s
Successful GAO bid protesters can sometimes recover their attorneys’ fees and costs. But when are fees and costs recoverable? How must a claim be supported? When is a claim for costs and attorneys’ fees due?
In the Summer 2017 edition of The Procurement Lawyer (the quarterly publication of the American Bar Association’s Public Contract Law Section), my Koprince Law LLC colleagues Candace Shields and Ian Patterson take an in-depth look at the recovery of costs and attorneys’ fees in GAO bid p
Past performance evaluations normally consider two aspects of an offeror’s prior work: whether that performance was recent and relevant. But in making its best value determination, must an agency also consider the duration of an offeror’s past performance?
A recent GAO bid protest decision answered this question, at least under the rules established in the solicitation at hand. In Technica LLC, B-413546.4 et al. (July 10, 2017), GAO denied a protest challenging the sufficiency of an awardee’s p
When submitting bids, contractors should always double check their proposal submission methods, whether it be a designated portal, email, or any other method, and do so well before the deadline. GAO recently had the opportunity to examine proposal submission issues related to a US Navy procurement, and did not show sympathy for the contractor who experienced proposal submission issues right at the deadline.
GAO addressed late filing exceptions and issues with submission portals in the pr
An agency has broad discretion to terminate a contract for convenience. But sometimes, a contractor will challenge the termination for convenience by arguing that the agency acted in bad faith in terminating the contract.
A recent CBCA decision looks at what type of evidence is needed to establish bad faith. Not surprisingly, the CBCA confirms that the standard of proof is quite high.
In J.R. Mannes Gov’t Servs. Corp., CBCA 5911 (Mar. 29, 2018), the CBCA reviewed an appeal of J.R. Mannes Gov
Earning federal contracts is a powerful tool to help small companies grow their business. To help make sure that small businesses have a seat at the table, the Small Business Act sets prime contracting goals for small businesses (along with each socio-economic category). 15 U.S.C. § 644(g). And each year, the SBA issues a scorecard grading the government’s compliance with those goals.
Just a couple days ago, the SBA released its scorecard for the 2018 fiscal year. All told, the scorecard pai
A company that is nonresponsive to an Invitation for Bid (IFB), or any solicitation for that matter, will usually be rejected for consideration for award. All too often, when a nonresponsive finding is made, there is no coming back.
A recent decision from GAO shines light on what it means to be “nonresponsive” and “not responsible.” GAO confirmed that SAM registration submitting annual certifications are matters of responsibility, not responsiveness.
What is the difference? Let’s look at
One of my major concerns with the draft solicitation for the CIO-SP4 GWAC was the limited nature of the past performance NITAAC intended to consider. Under the draft RFP, NITAAC would not have considered the past performance of subcontractors–something I believed violated 13 C.F.R. 125.2(g) in certain cases, and was contrary to the guidance of FAR 15.305(a)(2)(iii), which says that agencies “should” consider the past performance of “subcontractors that will perform major or critical aspects of
It’s an exciting time in the federal contracting world. The House and Senate negotiators have resolved their differences on the 2020 NDAA and it should be passed soon. In addition to the article below, you can review our coverage on some of the major provisions that would affect contractors and we’ll also provide updates with any major changes coming out of the final version.
But that’s not the only news. There are are also updates on the flurry of recent SBA rule changes and a new SBA admin
Debriefings play a vital role in the procurement process. When conducted fully and fairly, a debriefing provides an offeror with valuable insight into the strengths and shortcomings of its proposal, thus enabling the offeror to improve its offering under future solicitations. But when an agency provides only a perfunctory debriefing, the process can be virtually worthless–and may actually encourage an unsuccessful offeror to file a bid protest.
With this in mind, the Office of Federal Procureme
Whether you are an active small business federal contractor, or an entrepreneur still getting your business off the ground, you are going to need a cybersecurity plan. Many DoD contractors, in particular, face a pending deadline to comply with NIST 800-171, as mandated by DFARS 252.204-7012.
The Kansas SBDC Cybersecurity Center for Small Business wants to help.
Located in downtown Lawrence, Kansas—just across town from us coincidentally—the Cybersecurity Center, housed at the KU Small Busine
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
Recently, we wrote about the Congress’ Women’s Business Centers Improvements Act of 2019 (H.R. 4405). Since the Act passed the House in October, SBA has independently codified improved rules for the Women’s Business Center Program.
As a reminder, the Women’s Business Center Program (or “WBC Program”) was first introduced by SBA in 1988. Currently, SBA lists 116 different centers located across the United States. By law, SBA is authorized to provide grant assistance to private, nonprofit
GAO bid protests filed by small businesses are (statistically speaking) less likely to succeed than protests filed by large contractors, according to the RAND Corporation’s recent bid protest study.
The disparity isn’t the result of discrimination against small businesses, but rather a product of other factors: primarily, the motivation to protest, the understanding of the protest system, and access to legal counsel. RAND raises an important point, but offers no fair and easy solution. Perhap
In a best value competition, when two offerors receive identical adjectival scores on the non-price factors, one might assume that the procuring agency would be required to award the contract to the lower-priced offeror.
Not so. In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that where two offerors received identical scores on three non-price factors, the agency could still elect to award the contract to the higher-priced offeror.
GAO’s decision in Valiant Government Services, LLC, B-416488
This week on the blog we continued to bring you coverage of COVID-19 related issues, including some timely updates on SBA’s extension of the deadline to return funds under the Paycheck Protection Program.
But there was much more federal contracting news this week, including articles about a fill-in for the 8(a) STARS II vehicle, restructuring of government IT procurement units, and a proposed new COVID-19 relief bill that could help federal contractors.
GAO: DHS Needs More Oversight
With what is being deemed “The Great American Eclipse” ready to hit the skies on Monday, there is a lot of excitement in the air here in Lawrence. We are just off the path of totality and are expecting 99.3% coverage. My colleagues and family will be outside (with protective eyewear of course) and witness this amazing moment. As for me, I’ll be in San Diego, speaking at the 2017 Department of the Navy Gold Coast Conference which will drop my near total eclipse view down to a partial eclipse of a
Wouldn’t it be swell to simply erase those less-than-flattering moments from your past merely by deleting them? For instance, what if your biographer simply omitted any mention of you being excited for and seeing the apparently horrible new Cats movie? Does erasing a historical fact–such as an unfavorable detail from a proposal–mean that it never happened?
Well, evidently the Navy and an awardee, under a recently protested Navy contract, thought so. But GAO brought them back to reality i
While many industries have existed since time immemorial, new industries are created and old industries fade all the time. A mere twenty-five years ago, there was no such thing as social media and video rental stores were all the rage. Now the former is a multi-billion-dollar industry, and the latter is basically extinct. In recognition of the changes that we experience over time, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget routinely revises the North American Industry Classification Systems (NAICS
A CIO-SP3 SB contract holder could not protest the award of a task order to a competitor because the order was valued at less than $10 million.
In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO confirmed that civilian task order awards–including those under CIO-SP3 SB–generally cannot be protested unless the value of the order exceeds $10 million.
The GAO’s decision in AMAR Health IT, LLC, B-414384.3 (Mar. 13, 2018) involved a task order RFQ issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. HHS
The SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals denied an SDVOSB-status protest recently where the protester’s main argument amounted to an allegation that the owner of a competitor failed to identify on social media that he had a service-related disability.
OHA called the allegation “completely without merit.”
BMK Ventures, Inc. protested the service-disabled veteran-owned status of Beacon Point Associates, LLC in October. Beacon point had been reverified as SDVOSB by the Department of Vete
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
In the world of federal contracting, precision matters. In fact, precision is often essential when developing a winning proposal. When it comes to subjective evaluation considerations, however, it can be challenging to articulate relevant evaluation criteria with a high level of precision. Indeed, as one prospective offeror recently discovered, some evaluation terms are good enough for government work, despite being imprecise.
Federal Acquisition Services Team OASIS JV, LLC, B-418776 (Co
The SBA is considering making changes to improve its socioeconomic programs–particularly the 8(a) and HUBZone Programs.
In a talk yesterday at the 2017 Navy Gold Coast Procurement Conference, Robb Wong, the SBA’s recently-appointed Associate Administrator, Office of Government Contracting and Business Development, discussed some of the big changes the SBA is considering. And to my ears, at least, a lot of what Mr. Wong said makes good sense.
Mr. Wong made clear that few decisions have been
For most Americans, tax season is happily behind them and Memorial Day festivities signaled the start of summer. A recent GAO report, however, may give cause for some federal contractors to revisit their tax policies before lighting up the grill next weekend.
Contracting Officers are required to take in a wealth of information prior to awarding a contract. One piece of information each contracting officer is supposed to review is the tax status of offerors. If an offeror is delinquent in pay
.gif)
