Affiliation is a dirty word to small business federal government
contractors. For good reason: it can turn a small business into a large one and
destroy its eligibility for socioeconomic programs and set-aside contracts. Proactive
small business contractors, therefore, routinely audit their affiliation risks
and, if necessary, take actions to fracture that affiliation.
One of the ways a company might try to fracture affiliation is
to sell a division or business line to a third party. Because
You’ve got to love Kansas weather. Last week it was 65 degrees and sunny, and now we’re due for an ice storm. There’s always something new if you don’t like the current weather.
It’s kind of the same way with government contracting. There’s always something new. This week, there are updates about the government getting over $3 billion from False Claims Act Case, updates about the timing for CMMC cybersecurity certifications, and the goals of the new SBA administrator.
Jovita Carranz
It’s never a good idea to perform work without a written contract authorizing the work; handshake agreements between the Government and contractors aren’t reliable. This is particularly true when a dispute arises and the contractor wants compensation. Without a contract, the firm might be out of luck.
An example of this situation recently played out before the Court of Federal Claims in Panther Brands, LLC v. United States, No. 16-1157C (Fed. Cl. Dec. 17, 2019). There, IndyCar company Pa
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case Monday that could have upended the Rule of Two’s priority over the AbilityOne program for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ procurements.
The denial of a petition for a writ of certiorari—that’s Supreme Court-ese for a request to hear the appeal—ends a saga that has been several years in the making and effectively cements the supremacy of the Rule of Two over the AbilityOne program when the VA is purchasing goods and services.
The c
Contractors interested in acquiring participants in the SBA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program beware: successfully novating SBIR contracts has been made significantly harder by a recent GAO decision. Worse still, SBIR novation mistakes can jeopardize future awards under the SBIR contract vehicles. Tread lightly.
For those who are unfamiliar, SBIR is a program overseen by the SBA that is designed to provide research and development opportunities for small businesses in t
The SBA recently issued a final rule concerning numerous aspects of small business contracting. In previous posts, we wrote about a few parts of the rule, including changes to the limitations on subcontracting. The new rule also clarifies some important facets of the rules governing subcontracting plans.
These rules are intended to make it easier to hold large business prime contractors accountable for meeting the goals of their small business subcontracting plans. By the same token, the
Hope everyone had a great holiday season! Now it’s time to get back to the routine. And for those of us in the northern parts of the county–a few more months to walk in a winter wonderland.
To avoid that post-holiday letdown, enjoy some of these federal contracting updates that have been rolling in since my last update. This week, there are interesting stories including the new SBA administrator being confirmed, Space Force seeking innovative tech solutions, and calls for federal purchasing
As I’m sure most other attorneys can commiserate with, I
often have a recurring nightmare that I miss a filing deadline. Doing so can lead
to terrible results: dismissed cases and, in some cases, sanctions against the
attorney. For this reason, we always check, double-check, and triple-check our
filing deadlines, and strive to file documents early, when possible.
Given my fear, I gain no pleasure in reading about missed
filing deadlines, especially when the goof is the subject of a matter ou
By 2020, most of us have gotten used to almost immediate means of digital communication. We expect emails to reach their destination at lightning-fast speeds—but this isn’t always the case. Relying on this expectation can have devastating effects, as it did for a protester in one recent GAO case.
In Spanish Solutions Language Services, LLC, B-418191 (Comp. Gen. Jan. 2, 2020), the Protester sought to submit a proposal for providing Arabic, French, and Russian translation services for a De
It’s generally a pretty high bar to argue the ol’ “bait and switch” concerning what personnel will actually perform a contract. But specifically naming a crucial employee of the incumbent in your proposal—without ever talking to that employee about working on the new contract—can meet the bar in a GAO protest.
GAO’s decision in T3I Solutions, LLC, B-418034 (Dec. 13, 2019). concerned the the Air Force’s best-value award to Darton Innovative Technologies, Inc. (Darton), for courseware de
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
As we reflect on the end of 2019 and look forward to what 2020 will bring, it’s interesting to see what was noteworthy to our readers in 2019. To that end, I’ve compiled a list of some of our most popular posts from 2019. 2020 will certainly bring many more changes in the federal contracting world and SmallGovCon will be here to provide insight on all of them.
In 2019, some of the hot topics were perennial favorites–topics from years past that keep cropping up. Others are more recent po
As we wind down 2019, all of us at SmallGovCon would like to wish our readers a happy and prosperous 2020! No doubt the new year will bring plenty of regulatory changes, impactful decisions, and other important updates in the federal contracting world. We’ll help you keep a handle on it.
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Preparing a proposal for a federal procurement is an
involved process. On top of the extensive drafting and estimating work,
proposals often require supporting documentation like licenses or
certifications. But what happens when a proposal and its supporting
documentation contradict one another? As one contractor learned the hard way,
this contradiction can have disastrous consequences.
Vane Line Bunkering, Inc., B-417859 et al. (Comp. Gen. Nov. 22, 2019), involved a solicitation for fu
When the SBA issued its final rule implementing the Runway Extension Act’s 5-year receipts calculation period earlier this month, it allowed for a two-year transition: until January 6, 2022, the SBA will allow businesses to choose either a 3-year or a 5-year receipts calculation period.
This transition phase is helpful, the SBA noted, to small businesses that might be adversely affected by an abrupt change to the receipts calculation period—namely, businesses with declining revenues over the
The SBA said recently that it intends to issue a class waiver of the Nonmanufacturer Rule for laptop and tablet computers, freeing up small businesses to resell these products in bulk to the federal government.
The SBA recently announced its intent in the Federal Register, giving the public the opportunity to comment early in the New Year.
Assuming the change sticks, small businesses who sell laptops and tablets to the government through small business set-aside contracts will no l
As we roll through the holidays, I hope all of our readers are enjoying a wonderful holiday season with lots of good cheer. Lawrence recently got its first snow of the season. While it won’t stick around for Christmas, it provided for some great sledding opportunities and, perhaps even better, was mostly cleared up by the start of the work week.
This week also saw its fair share of news in the government contracting world, ranging from a warning from DOD that it is getting serious on protec
Just like the elves in Santa’s workshop, Congress has been busy this winter season! Among the chaos, three bills with the potential to impact small business Federal government contractors have been percolating. The first and third bill propose amendments to laws already in place covering surviving spouses of SDVOSB owners and the Department of Homeland Security’s Mentor-Protege Program, while the second bill proposes an entirely new SBA program for small businesses geared toward promoting resear
SBA has issued a final rule, effective December 30, that will now provide an avenue to protest situations where the prime contractor on a SDVOSB, HUBZone, or WOSB set-aside contract is subcontracting most or all of the work to a non-similarly situated—but still small business—concern. It will also allow SBA to review eligibility for 8(a) Program contracts on this ground as well.
Interestingly, this was not something that could be protested at SBA under the previous SBA size protest regu
Recently, the SBA released a final rule that clarifies some of the mysteries surrounding the limitation on subcontracting rules. The new rule, which goes into effect on December 30, 2019, provides clearer guidelines for contractors, while also creating some new requirements and definitions as discussed below.
I’ve highlighted four areas where the new rule will alter some aspects of compliance with the limitations on subcontracting.
Limitations on Subcontracting Compliance Monitorin
GAO protests typically address issues that occur before contract award. For example, GAO will review a solicitation’s terms. It will also review an agency’s evaluation of proposals submitted in connection with a solicitation. But as a general rule, GAO won’t insert itself into disputes arising after award, which fall under the contract administration umbrella. But there is an exception–and an important one . . . one that all federal contractors should be aware of.
So what is this excepti
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
Fraud is an ever pressing concern in federal contracts, and
the federal government goes to great lengths to minimize the risks to introduce
fraud into the procurement system. Unfortunately, a recent GAO report highlighted
how complex ownership structures can be leveraged to obscure fraudulent contracting
activities. Worse still, complex ownership structures are most frequently
leveraged to perpetrate small business set-aside fraud.
GAO’s report is a direct response to concerns raised by
The SBA has published a final rule that would allow for quite the change to small business set-aside multiple award contracts (MACs) and orders issued under them. This final rule amends the SBA’s regulations to authorize task and delivery orders issued under a small business set-aside MAC, to be set-aside for HUBZone businesses, 8(a) businesses, SDVOSBs, or WOSBs. While agencies had set aside orders under MACs before, SBA has now clarified its regulations to allow socioeconomic set-asides of ord
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
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