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CHILINVLN

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Everything posted by CHILINVLN

  1. Very familiar with the SBIR website, but really just looking for a 101 answer on - you will need to do X, Y, and Z. If it helps, the end customer is DOD, so would DOD be able to do it, or would it be better to route through GSA? I'm trying to understand the path of least resistance.
  2. Apologies if this is an elementary question to many, but this is new territory for me. Scenario - Organization A as a prime is holding a Phase 3 SBIR and Organization B, is a subcontractor, doing all of the work on a complete pass-through. In fact, Organization B has in writing from Organization A, that Organization A holds no rights to anything clearly understands that Organization B has the expertise, the solution, and the customer relationship. Situation - The Phase 3 SBIR will be ending in the next 12-18 months for Organization A. Organization B is looking for an alternative path on where to move the work and potentially move out from Organization A. Customer is receptive and supportive to the idea of doing a SBIR with Organization B as a follow on, however, customer is unaware of the SBIR process and needs some handholding on the best way to facilitate. Question - What is the best approach in obtaining a SBIR, what things do I need to be aware of and how to I advise the customer on next steps on who to speak with? Can Organization B justify starting with a Phase 3 SBIR if the solution is already well known, commercialized, and still going through continued development? I know of a few small companies that have nearly 25-50M routing through a couple SBIRS with mutiple orders placed against the SBIR, just not quite sure how they are doing that and could use some guidance.
  3. Received this from the KO when requesting a debrief. I've never seen this type of response before and wanted to validate. This procurement was done under FAR Part 13.5, “Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items” (ref Basis for Award, page 5 of the combo). FAR 13.106-3(d) would apply in this case and allows for “a brief explanation of the basis for the contract award decision” if it was based on factors other than price alone. As such, your reference to FAR 15.506 would not be applicable.
  4. I often hear and see so many different interpretations on how to handle this particular topic and really would like some opinions from this group on the same. Scenario: Company A holds an annual event, can be an anniversary party, holiday party, etc. and the typical all employees and spouses are invited. Company A would also like to invite key clients that Company A has worked with for many years. These are clients who we directly and indirectly support on Federal contracts and in some cases, the client may be in a TPOC or COR position. Company A events are often held at an offsite location, is a catered dinner (plate or buffet), music, etc. No gifts, prizes, or otherwise are distributed. The clients that Company A would like to invite, would only be attending the event, eating an optional meal, and would be mingling in conversations and sharing pleasantries. Not that it matters, but these federal clients are folks we consider "friends" and have been close to for years. Question: Is this acceptable for the organization to do, where does the company draw the line, and what steps would we need to take to reduce/mitigate risk to make this happen? Do we give them the option to join and charge a fee vs extending an invitation? Do we just put a statement on the invitation that the event meal has a value less than $25? Appreciate any advice on this topic.
  5. I don't think my message was clear. We are not purchased equipment on behalf of the Government, our Development team is being provided equipment from the Government that is lackluster in nature and the Government admits they have equipment issues and expect us to perform regardless. The program manager wants our corporate office to provide everyone on the team high end laptops to use, offline from the agency, to develop software to meet the objectives of the SOW demonstrating that we are willing to go above and beyond to get the job done. Issue is, the contract itself currently does not state this is authorized, only references GFE will be issued, but I'm wondering on if we can potentially recoop this cost we will incur as well as what other associated risk we have with this approach.
  6. My organization has a single award BPA to perform software development for a particular agency. Within this BPA, it states that GFE will be issued and used. However, the program team states the delays on GFE are upwards of 8 weeks and upon receipt, are essentially useless, and the Government is expecting the team to perform Day 1. Of course, they want to execute to the best of their ability but are demanding our corporate office to supply them laptops (CFE) to do the work. While I plan to have a discussion with the CO and raise concerns that these are Government delays outside of our control and essentially state we can work around this, but it would require a contract mod to authorize CFE, which I feel we should price (we're looking at 100k extra in equipment that was not originally priced), my question is: What potential risks are we looking at by developing on our equipment vs GFE? I'd really appreciate some insight into this as I would like to ask the right questions and raise the right concerns. I'm not overly technical is this particular area and any help would be appreciated.
  7. Interested to know thoughts on this. We have a FFP contract with 7 FTEs in place providing labor support to a mailroom. CO states they want to descope the contract down to 4 FTE's halfway into our option year, but hopes to increase back up to 7 on the next option period due to COVID. Question is, since this is FFP, what approach can I take to minimize reduced revenue, if any? We bid this very lean with the anticipation of the overall profit being spread over the entire option period and labor set. Cutting the resourcing from 7 down to 4 halfway into the option period on a FFP contract completely changes those profit projections significantly. Can we push back? Any thoughts or questions we should/can ask?
  8. It's a company owned asset, not sure why it would be considered compensation to the driver. If Verizon buys a van and they have Johnny drive the van, does that count as Johnny's compensation? No.
  9. General business question. CPA states I should leave the CEO vehicle on the company as an asset and have him listed as a driver on our corporate auto insurance.
  10. It was purchased by the company, classified as an asset, and we originally planned to take depreciation on it and the CEO was only going to be listed as a "Driver".
  11. Apologies in advance, not sure where else to ask this question and hoping for some thoughts. We do not have a CFO, I'm currently a VP and leading our Contracts, Legal, and Finance/Accounting Departments, so I figured I would ask here first prior to engaging a consultant. My company recently created an Executive Automobile Allowance Policy, which is non-accountable, and provides C level executives a flat amount of $ per month as a perk to use towards person vehicle ownership, if they so choose. Three executives have leases that are under the company name and paid by the company, so we are transferring those to the employee and they will be responsible for the payment, insurance, etc. That's the easy part. Problem, the CEO recently purchased a vehicle and the company wrote a check and paid in full and it's now an asset (as of 1 month ago). I'm looking for a recommendation on how to handle this with the CEO so that it's fair with the other C level executives. My thoughts are: 1. I can keep the vehicle owned by the company and have the CEO removed from receiving the monthly allowance. However, I'm concerned about keeping the vehicle on our insurance and having him drive for liability purposes. 2. If we transfer the vehicle to the CEO (which is fully paid off), that's essentially an advance, or equity draw? If we did that, how would the financial aspect be worked out? 3. Other options I'm unaware of?
  12. Research, filing, red line markups to teaming agreements, consulting agreements, basically, pre-award support under the direction of a VP. Anything where we need true legal support, we outsource to one of our attorneys on retainer.
  13. We hired a "Legal Clerk" to support our internal legal department. However, our Corporate Lawyer resigned and we essentially outsource anything of significance. Our Legal Clerk is fantastic, but the question came up that this individual can't be called a "Legal Clerk" unless they are working under the supervision of a lawyer. I can't find anything online that clearly supports this as accurate. Curious to know if it's something I need to be concerned about, or not. If so, what is the best solution, retitle them to "Legal Associate" or something along those lines? Employees is still in Law School currently as general FYI.
  14. Good link and I appreciate your feedback.
  15. I have a contract where the Government doesn't seem to be open to updated a wage determination (SCA employees). It's my understanding that this CFR requires them to do so every two years at minimum. Generally, WD's are updated on the option period. I was interested in some feedback on if this CFR needs to be incorporated into the contract to be enforced, or if it applies regardless, and what possible courses of action I can pursue to resolve. I don't want my company to have increased liability, but I'm also trying not to piss off our client.
  16. This question always seems to come up and each time, I get a difference answer from my contracts shop or the Government, so I'd like to try to get some help and/or clarification here. I have a contract where folks are often required to travel, on weekends in order to be on location by Monday morning to support the Government. Employees are taking military flights, authorized by the Government, on Sunday's in order to be there by Monday. The contract is Labor Hour. Thoughts? Here is the exchange below. Email 1 - CO states: Travel hours outside of work hours are not considered billable. Email 2 - My response: Can you please point me to the guidance you are referencing? It was my understanding based on the Federal Travel Regulations that travel time approved by the government was in fact allowable. Email 3 - CO response: The government has not given permission to any vendor to charge for travel after duty hours. The government will reimburse the vendor for all travel expenses incurred. Why does COMPANY think the government should pay for travel during non-working hours? What service is the COMPANY employee providing the government while traveling?
  17. I have a contract at DISA that designates an ACOR and TCOR (which is really meant to be COTR, but named in the same format as the previous). Administrative COR and Technical COR. I find this odd and I've only see it done once, on this particular contract.
  18. I'm struggling to find much clarity on this when read through DOL, IRS, or even other areas online, as it appears much of this may be discretionary. However, I'm hoping I might get some insight here. I will attempt to outline as much as I can think of. Company Pay Periods are Semi-Monthly, 1st and 15th If a minimum amount of hours are not met in a specific pay period, it will be LWOP for a full-time salary exempt employee (e.g. 160 pay period, must have 160 hours at minimum, either through direct project, PTO, etc.) We are trying to allow for flexibility for alternate work schedules to align to some of our Government customers. (e.g. 9-hours per day, every other Friday off), however, this type of structure does not align to our pay periods, as some pay periods may have 2, or 3 Fridays. I've heard of companies that seem to "not care" or have a set policy on this, however, have not seen those policies myself. One example is a company that apparently sets a 1650 billable hour quota and once that's met for the year, that's all that matters, regardless if it takes 12 months, or 9 months, and if 9 months, the employee can take the remaining 3 months off. I find this unrealistic and I don't see how that could possibly work. I'm open to any thoughts on how I can work through this challenge or how it's done elsewhere. If more information is needed, please feel free to ask and I can address additional questions.
  19. I would have to pull up language in the contract to verify, but it's my understanding that we provide support to the Government and since our positions are non-essential, when the Government is closed, we should be as well. Basically, unless we can justify bonafide work is being performed when our client is out of office, we're unable to bill that time. Federal closures/site closures for inclimate weather is handled the same way. I may be over simplifying this, but, that's the easiest way I can explain it. I do plan to inquire with each of our CO/COR's to request clarification on how they would like us to proceed, but before doing so - was curious to input from the experts on wifcon.
  20. I'm trying to figure out how to handle this guidance for our company. We have a variety of T&M and FFP contracts, all in the affected areas noted in the paragraph. Do I have no choice but to provide a holiday, or can this be forced telework? I appreciate any guidance. Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017, falls on a Friday. An employee who works in the District of Columbia, Montgomery or Prince George's Counties in Maryland, Arlington or Fairfax Counties in Virginia, or the cities of Alexandria or Fairfax in Virginia, and who is regularly scheduled to perform nonovertime work on Inauguration Day, is entitled to a holiday. (See 5 U.S.C. 6103(c).) There is no in-lieu-of holiday for employees who are not regularly scheduled to work on Inauguration Day./p>
  21. A few weeks ago, we received a letter that authorized us to place orders under the GSA Multiple Award Schedule program as an alternative source in procuring equipment and supplies for services for the exclusive use and ownership of the Government. That letter states that we are responsible for compliance with the applicable acquisition policies and procedures prescribed in FAR 51.1, particularly 51.103. That's why I brought up FAR Part 51.
  22. Here's the concern I have. FAR 51 - Deviation Ordering Guide has this statement: Question: Can the buying contractor add any additional markup/fee onto the items procured under the FAR 51 authority, even if the fee is associated with a legitimate cost like a material handling charge? Answer: No. The items procured under the authority must be passed through to the Federal Government at the MAS contract price less any applicable discount. No markup of any kind is permitted on this portion of the order.
  23. The task order is not yet awarded, it can be any type we want under the BPA. Other task orders have typically been T&M, so I would anticipate the preference to the same here.
  24. I'm typically in the business of only providing labor, however, we're being asked to provide hardware and I want to be sure this is handled correctly. I have a contracts person who is stating that we're not allowed to put any markup on hardware, even though we incur costs. i find this strange and it doesn't make sense to me. This would be a new task order on an existing BPA based off our Schedule 70. Can someone please tell me how we would structure our pricing for purchasing hardware on behalf of the Gov through a reseller (e.g. CDWG or elsewhere) and be able to put some type of markup on it? Is there a specific FAR clause that I can reference?
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