It is no secret that the False Claims Act (“FCA”) is the government’s primary anti-fraud tool and that recoveries under the statute have hit record highs in recent years. For example, since 1987, FCA recoveries have totaled $56 billion with no single year since 2010 falling below $3 billion. Read More…
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 amended the Truth in Negotiations Act’s cost or pricing data report threshold, effective July 1, 2018, for all Department of Defense (DoD) procurement contracts, if no exceptions apply. The TINA amendment raises the threshold for submitting certified cost or pricing data (i.e., Read More…
Liquidated damages are useful tools for parties to allocate risk at the beginning of a contract. A liquidated damages clause allocates the risk of a contract being completed late. For a liquidated damages clause to apply, the damages must be approximately the damages likely to be incurred by the assessing party and the damages must be reasonably uncertain at the time of contracting. Read More…
While FAR 52.242-14 (the “Suspension of Work Clause”) and FAR 52.242-15 (the “Stop-Work Order Clause”) both allow a contracting officer to require a contractor to stop all, or any part, of the work at the Government’s convenience, they contain some key differences that prudent contractors should know to protect their interests when contracting with the Government. Read More…
Despite recent political shifts away from globalization, international trade – particularly U.S. exports – will remain a substantial component of the U.S. economy. Companies doing business in the U.S. and overseas must be up to date on U.S. export control regulations. An important component of these regulations are the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”), Read More…
It seems like a yearly ritual. The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (“SASC”) drafts and passes a version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) that includes reforms aimed at curtailing bid protests, while the House Armed Services Committee (“HASC”) drafts and passes a version of the NDAA that omits these bid protest reforms. Read More…
In its annual report to Congress, the Defense Contract Audit Agency (“DCAA”) released impressive metrics about its progress during the 2017 fiscal year. For many years, DCAA has struggled to manage a substantial number of backlogged incurred cost audits—most of which extended back several years, including some which extended back almost a decade. Read More…
Back when Congress passed the FY2017 NDAA, they included a provision (Section 1822) requiring SBA to create a pilot program to provide opportunities for qualified subcontractors to obtain past performance ratings. Specifically, Congress mandated that SBA create a 3-year pilot program whereby small business concerns without a past performance rating as a prime contractor in the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) (i.e., Read More…
The Department of Defense (“DoD”) recently issued a final rule regarding contractor disclosures of defective pricing issues on DoD contracts, which can arise where the contractor’s certified cost or pricing data is inaccurate, incomplete or is not current. In such cases, these errors and omissions can result in significant contract overpayments by the government. Read More…
Often times the most difficult part of the government contract claims process is checking all the procedural “boxes” of a certified claim. Failure to file a claim within six years of accrual, request a contracting officer’s final decision, or include a wet ink signature are just a few of the procedural technicalities required by the Contract Disputes Act (“CDA”) that can get a claim kicked out before the Board ever has a chance to get to the merits. Read More…