By Oles Morrison on September 30, 2014 | Posted in Suspension and Debarment
While suspension and debarment has long been a Federal Government action, state and local governments are starting to adopt the practice as well. For example, in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the county contracting code was amended in 2012 to require a 5 year debarment of contractors convicted of bribery and other […]
By Oles Morrison on September 24, 2014 | Posted in Bid Protests
This is the first in a series of posts highlighting common mistakes made (by protestors) in bid protests at GAO. Today’s post discusses a mistake related to the deadline for filing supplemental protests when an extension is granted for filing comments on the agency report. This mistake is made by […]
By Oles Morrison on September 23, 2014 | Posted in Bid Protests
One might assume that if the top two proposals in a best-value procurement receive the same ratings on all non-price factors, the proposals are obviously equal in technical merit and the award must go to the lower priced proposal. However, this assumption would be incorrect. And, as GAO recently pointed […]
By Oles Morrison on September 22, 2014 | Posted in Suspension and Debarment
Debarment is not just for ethics violations anymore. Suspending and Debarring Officials are looking to a new source for referrals – Contracting Officers. FAR 9.406-2(b)(1)(i)(A) and FAR 9.406-2(b)(1)(i)(B) allow Suspending and Debarring Officials to debar companies for a history of performance issues or a willful failure to perform in accordance […]
By James F. Nagle on July 8, 2014 | Posted in Procurement Issues
The American public generally agrees that the federal government’s contracting response is far from efficient. ‘Why did it take so long to get help for Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and/or the Joplin Missouri Tornado take so long?’ is a commonly asked question. So, while the memories of the Oso, Washington landslide […]
By Oles Morrison on July 2, 2014 | Posted in Small Business
One of the most fundamental requirements of Small Business Administration’s (SBA) size protest regulations is that the protested firm must timely produce information/documents that SBA requests to perform its investigation of the firm’s size/status. What is the penalty for failing to provide requested information/documents? SBA may presume the missing information would demonstrate that […]
By Oles Morrison on July 1, 2014 | Posted in Bid Protests
In a recent bid protest decision concerning the Department of Energy’s award of legacy management support services award contract, GAO held that the agency acted reasonably when evaluating protestor WSS’s past performance on the incumbent contract by disregarding two Contractor Performance Assessment Reports (“CPARs”), which reflected “exceptional” performance, in favor of […]
By Howard W. Roth on June 30, 2014 | Posted in Legislative and Regulatory Developments
Section 1614 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 (NDAA) offers advantages to small business subcontractors as well as prime contractors, by allowing primes to count second tier small businesses subcontracts toward their small business subcontracting goals. Previously, primes could only count first tier small business subcontractors […]
By Oles Morrison on June 23, 2014 | Posted in Small Business
Size matters. Companies that exceed applicable SBA size standards are ineligible for award of small business set-aside contracts. The SBA uses rules of affiliation to make sure companies do not take unfair advantage of the benefits of small business contracting programs. When measuring whether a company comes within the applicable […]
By Oles Morrison on June 7, 2014 | Posted in Bid Protests
Back in December 2013, GAO issued a protest decision involving a battle between the two private space contractors, Blue Origin and SpaceX, to lease Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A – where the majority of Apollo and Space Shuttle missions were launched – from NASA. Although the ultimate decision […]
By Oles Morrison on November 7, 2013 | Posted in LEED
On October 25, 2013, the U.S. General Services Administration (“GSA”) concluded that federal agencies should continue to use third party rating systems to evaluate the performance of federal buildings. Specifically, GSA advocated that agencies use U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED green building rating system or the Green Globes system […]
By Oles Morrison on May 21, 2013 | Posted in Legislative and Regulatory Developments
An interim rule, with immediate effect, will amend regulations to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (“SBA”) Federal Contract Program, allowing for increased access to federal contracting opportunities for women-owned small businesses. This change comes as a result of the National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) signed in January 2013. (For more […]
By Oles Morrison on March 29, 2013 | Posted in Buy American Act
It comes as a surprise to no one that Congress has wide-ranging ability to place conditions on the federal government’s ability to spend federal dollars. What may surprise some contractors is the effect that Congress’s power via “domestic preference acts” has to limit how the contractor builds a project and […]
By PaperStreet Web Design on March 26, 2013 | Posted in False Claims Act
Government contractors routinely provide certifications during the contracting process. For example, these certifications ask the contractor to verify that the cost or pricing data or claims submitted are true and honest. Submitting a false claim can create liability under the Federal False Claims Act (“FCA”). See 31 U.S.C. § 3729. […]
By Oles Morrison on March 22, 2013 | Posted in Legislative and Regulatory Developments
As noted in our earlier blog entry, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 (“NDAA”), signed by President Obama on January 3, 2013 included significant changes affecting small business contracting. The changes largely came as a result of the House Armed Services Committee special “Panel on Business Challenges in the […]