November 11, 2014
On October 4, 2014, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a report for Congress entitled GAO Bid Protests: An Overview of Time Frames and Procedures. Bid protests are of interest to Congress because they affect agency missions and operations. While the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is not the only forum with authority to hear bid protests involving federal acquisitions – the…
November 11, 2014
The performance of Government contracts often requires the use of contractors’ preexisting data. Your rights in this data are frequently very valuable – sometimes even indispensable to your continued existence. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that when submitting a proposal for a government contract it is crucial that you understand and articulate your rights and those of the…
November 11, 2014
Despite all the alarming news about Ebola in the press these days, government contractors face another ailment that’s also scary and, unfortunately, far more common. Known as incumbentitis, this disease all too often prevents contractors from winning renewals of their existing contracts. The symptoms include overconfidence based on past performance; an inability to notice changes in an agency’s…
November 4, 2014
The Court of Federal Claims recently determined, for the second time in two years (see our March 2013 blog: Due Process is Alive and Well), that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) failed to provide due process to a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) in connection with its eligibility decertification. The Court also ruled that VA’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged…
November 4, 2014
A 54-year old Virginia executive, Mark Farmer, was indicted in October for allegedly providing things of value to the former director of two Ohio Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centers. The alleged quid pro quo was that, in exchange for these items of value, the VA director provided confidential information to Farmer about various VA construction projects. The charges in the…
October 28, 2014
Many companies licensing software to federal agencies have been frustrated by their government customers’ apparent inability to effectively manage their licensing efforts. Too often agencies either: (i) buy more licenses that they need and later ask for rebates or concessions because they “didn’t use the software”; or (ii) purchase too few licenses and exceed licensed usage limits, triggering a…
October 28, 2014
Last month the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) affirmed that even a defective termination notice starts the 90-day appeals clock, unless the contractor can establish it was actually prejudiced by the defective notice. In Mansoor International Development, ASBCA No. 58423, September 04, 2014, the ASBCA denied the government’s motion to dismiss the appeal as untimely,…
October 28, 2014
According to a recent decision by the General Accountability Office (GAO) the answer is “No.” If you submit a proposal with a key personnel requirement, and one or more of your proposed key people are no longer available, your proposal is no longer technically acceptable. Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. (Booz Allen) just learned this the hard way when Paradigm Technologies (Paradigm) protested,…
October 21, 2014
Federal law and regulations require our Government to award contracts on a competitive basis, to the maximum extent practical. Yet more than 30 years ago the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that “32 percent of the sole-source contracts it examined could have been awarded on a competitive basis.” The problem: ineffective management, including market research and advance…
October 21, 2014
A September 16, 2014 Government Accountability Office (GAO) (GAO-14-706) concluded that contracting officers (COs) are not properly monitoring subcontracting by 8(a) prime contractors to ensure compliance with applicable subcontracting limitations. Indeed, only two of the COs associated with the 10 contracts GAO reviewed had asked for and reviewed necessary information and made certain that the…
October 21, 2014
On October 10, 2014, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued its final rule, raising the minimum wage for employees of covered federal government contractors. The rule implements Executive Order 13658 which was announced by the president in February and published as a proposed rule by the DOL in June. While not all of the thousands of comments led to changes in the final rule, the DOL did address…
October 7, 2014
On September 3, 2014, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a notice of proposed changes to the DoD’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) program, 32 C.F.R. Part 286. The proposed rule seeks to promote uniformity in the program and streamline the process to acquire public records through a FOIA request. Among other things, the proposed rule would amend the DoD FOIA website to make it…
November 11, 2014
On October 4, 2014, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a report for Congress entitled GAO Bid Protests: An Overview of Time Frames and Procedures. Bid protests are of interest to Congress because they affect agency missions and operations. While the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is not the only forum with authority to hear bid protests involving federal acquisitions – the…
November 11, 2014
The performance of Government contracts often requires the use of contractors’ preexisting data. Your rights in this data are frequently very valuable – sometimes even indispensable to your continued existence. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that when submitting a proposal for a government contract it is crucial that you understand and articulate your rights and those of the…
November 11, 2014
Despite all the alarming news about Ebola in the press these days, government contractors face another ailment that’s also scary and, unfortunately, far more common. Known as incumbentitis, this disease all too often prevents contractors from winning renewals of their existing contracts. The symptoms include overconfidence based on past performance; an inability to notice changes in an agency’s…
November 4, 2014
The Court of Federal Claims recently determined, for the second time in two years (see our March 2013 blog: Due Process is Alive and Well), that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) failed to provide due process to a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) in connection with its eligibility decertification. The Court also ruled that VA’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged…
November 4, 2014
A 54-year old Virginia executive, Mark Farmer, was indicted in October for allegedly providing things of value to the former director of two Ohio Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centers. The alleged quid pro quo was that, in exchange for these items of value, the VA director provided confidential information to Farmer about various VA construction projects. The charges in the…
October 28, 2014
Many companies licensing software to federal agencies have been frustrated by their government customers’ apparent inability to effectively manage their licensing efforts. Too often agencies either: (i) buy more licenses that they need and later ask for rebates or concessions because they “didn’t use the software”; or (ii) purchase too few licenses and exceed licensed usage limits, triggering a…
October 28, 2014
Last month the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) affirmed that even a defective termination notice starts the 90-day appeals clock, unless the contractor can establish it was actually prejudiced by the defective notice. In Mansoor International Development, ASBCA No. 58423, September 04, 2014, the ASBCA denied the government’s motion to dismiss the appeal as untimely,…
October 28, 2014
According to a recent decision by the General Accountability Office (GAO) the answer is “No.” If you submit a proposal with a key personnel requirement, and one or more of your proposed key people are no longer available, your proposal is no longer technically acceptable. Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. (Booz Allen) just learned this the hard way when Paradigm Technologies (Paradigm) protested,…
October 21, 2014
Federal law and regulations require our Government to award contracts on a competitive basis, to the maximum extent practical. Yet more than 30 years ago the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that “32 percent of the sole-source contracts it examined could have been awarded on a competitive basis.” The problem: ineffective management, including market research and advance…
October 21, 2014
A September 16, 2014 Government Accountability Office (GAO) (GAO-14-706) concluded that contracting officers (COs) are not properly monitoring subcontracting by 8(a) prime contractors to ensure compliance with applicable subcontracting limitations. Indeed, only two of the COs associated with the 10 contracts GAO reviewed had asked for and reviewed necessary information and made certain that the…
October 21, 2014
On October 10, 2014, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued its final rule, raising the minimum wage for employees of covered federal government contractors. The rule implements Executive Order 13658 which was announced by the president in February and published as a proposed rule by the DOL in June. While not all of the thousands of comments led to changes in the final rule, the DOL did address…
October 7, 2014
On September 3, 2014, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a notice of proposed changes to the DoD’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) program, 32 C.F.R. Part 286. The proposed rule seeks to promote uniformity in the program and streamline the process to acquire public records through a FOIA request. Among other things, the proposed rule would amend the DoD FOIA website to make it…
