Government Contracts Monitor

Feds Meet FY15 Small Business Prime Contracting Goals (Except HUBZone), But Individual Agency & Overall Subcontracting Shortfalls Persist, Providing Marketing Opportunities

May 1, 2016

In anticipation of this week’s national Small Business Week (May 1-7) activities, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) last Thursday announced the federal government’s Fiscal Year 2015 (FY15) small business goaling results and Small Business Procurement Scorecard.  According to SBA, the federal government achieved its 23% small business contracting goal for the third straight year,…

GAO Proposes Changes to Its Bid Protest Rules to Establish Electronic Filing

April 26, 2016

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a proposed rule amending its Bid Protest Regulations to implement the requirements of Section 1501 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2014 (the “FY14 CAA”) and to make certain administrative and other changes. The primary thrust of the proposed amendments is to implement the FY14 CAA’s direction to establish and operate an…

Short Take: SBA Releases Audit Report on 8(a) Eligibility Reconsiderations

April 26, 2016

Earlier this month, the SBA’s Office of the Inspector General released an audit report detailing findings regarding SBA determinations of eligibility for the 8(a) Business Development Program.  Ensuring good performance in this area is critically important because Government contracting officers rely on the SBA’s eligibility determination process to ensure that an 8(a) contractor will be able to…

Short Take: DoD Issues New Guidance on Contract Types

April 19, 2016

The Department of Defense (DoD) recently issued new guidance concerning the proper selection of contract type for use in procurements. The “Guidance on Using Incentive and Other Contract Types” will be posted within the DFARS Procedures, Guidance and Information (PGI) at DFARS PGI 216.104.

In her April 1, 2016 issuing memorandum, Claire M. Grady, Director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition…

SBA Proposes Changes to SBIR and STTR Policy Directives

April 18, 2016

The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently issued proposed amendments to its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program Policy Directives. Specifically, the Notice of Proposed Amendments describes plans to combine the two directives into one document, clarify the data rights and Phase III preference afforded to SBIR and STTR small…

Be Careful: You Might Have an Ostensible Subcontractor If . . .

April 11, 2016

When a follow-on contract is set aside for small businesses or an incumbent contractor outgrows the applicable size standard, contractors often get creative. That can be a good thing. There’s nothing inherently wrong with structuring teaming arrangements to support enable proposals from eligible prime contractors. But if your arrangements run afoul of the ostensible subcontractor rule, all your…

Short Take: FAPIIS Reporting Requirements Expanded to Include Information about Affiliates and Predecessors

April 11, 2016

Effective April 6, 2016, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) has been amended to require reporting in the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) to include, to the extent practicable, identification of any immediate owner or subsidiary, and all predecessors of an offeror that held a Federal contract or grant within the last three years.

The final rule implements…

Short Take: Agencies Still Aren’t Required to Tell You When Your Price Is Not Competitive

April 3, 2016

Last Spring, we published an article explaining that the requirement that discussions be "meaningful” does not ensure you will obtain any information about your proposed price.  The recent Government Accountability Office decision in Southeastern Kidney Council, B-412538 (March 17, 2016) makes clear that the GAO has not changed its mind on this issue.

The decision involved a protest by the…

“Interested Party” – GAO May Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

April 3, 2016

Just because you’re interested in the result of an agency award decision does not mean the Government Accountability Office (GAO) will consider you an interested party that can protest the decision. That’s an easy rule to remember and apply when the “interested” party in question is a subcontractor who was relying on work from the prime contractor that didn’t win the award. But what if the…

Compliance Is a Contact Sport: Communicate with Your Employees

April 3, 2016

It’s one thing for a contractor to agree with the importance of compliance in theory, or even to establish a compliance program. But making sure that it actually works is something else entirely. A recently announced civil settlement serves as a reminder that the implementation of your compliance program is at least as important as creating it in the first place. And a key to that implementation…

Colorado Construction Contractor Pays $1.8 Million to Settle with DOJ

March 28, 2016

On March 15, 2016, Judge Ketanji B. Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia approved $1,769,294 in criminal penalties and forfeiture for a Colorado construction firm that pled guilty last month to conspiring to illegally obtain federal contracts set aside for small, disadvantaged businesses. At the hearing, Judge Jackson said the sentencing deal between MCC…

Awardee’s Attempts to Recruit Incumbent’s Employees after Award Does Not Necessarily Mean It Engaged in a Bait and Switch Regarding Key Personnel

March 28, 2016

When incumbent contractors passed over for follow-on contracts seek to protest the award decision, they often challenge the evaluation of staffing and/or key personnel, arguing that the awardee’s proposal could not possibly be as strong as theirs because they proposed to use the current, experienced staff, something that the awardee was not able to do. If the incumbent learns after the award that…