Author Archives: SmallGovConContributor

GAO Walks the Line on Whether Facility Clearance is Proposal Acceptability or Responsibility Matter

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Your small business is interested in submitting a proposal that requires a Department of Defense Facilities Clearance (FCL). While you will not have the required FCL when proposals are due, you have applied for the FCL and all signs indicate you will have the FCL by the time contract performance begins. In this scenario, can the agency outright deny your proposal or would it have to refer your proposal to the SBA for a certificate of competency?

Turns out, it all hinges on whether GAO views the FCL requirement as a matter of proposal acceptability or corporate responsibility.

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GAO: We’re Not Wrong, But Our Original Recommendation Was Not Right

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Whenever GAO issues a bid protest decision, some parties are happier than others. In limited circumstances, however, an unhappy party may petition GAO to reconsider its decision if the outcome was based on errors of either fact or law. It is extremely rare for GAO to reverse itself during a reconsideration request.

That may explain why in a recent reconsideration decision, GAO maintains that its decision was correct based on the facts presented to it, but GAO nevertheless modified its recommendations substantially in the face of new facts.

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GAO Defers to SBA’s Interpretation of Runway Extension Act

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The Runway Extension Act has been a hot topic for federal government contractors. And as of this writing, the issue of the Act’s effectiveness hasn’t been conclusively decided—though SBA says the Act isn’t yet effective, others (including us, in various posts on this blog) have disagreed with this analysis.

A recent GAO decision decided a protest based on the Runway Extension Act.

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GAO Clarifies Timeliness Rules for Email Notice of Agency-Level Protest

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You can access the internet from your couch, the skies above, and even from space. This means that you can also access your emails from each of these locations. I am sure that some of you have received emails from GAO, an agency, or a contracting officer on your phone in the last month. You may even be reading this blog while on the go. In our ever-connected world, is it possible to establish “regular business hours” and truly disconnect when it comes to emails?

As it turns out, GAO says you can.

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Court Denies Protest of Procurement, Holds Dept. of Education Had Rational Basis

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The Court of Federal Claims recently wrote that “[t]here is no such thing as a perfect procurement.” To anyone familiar with federal government contracts, this commentary states the obvious.

But springing from the Court’s observation is another important reality: “a flawed procurement is not necessarily an illegal one.”

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NNSA Does Not Utilize Unique Contractor-Exclusion Authority, GAO Finds

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It comes as little surprise that when it comes to nuclear security, the FAR’s full and open competition requirements take a backseat. To this end, Congress temporarily granted the Department of Energy authority to exclude contractors from nuclear weapons and security system procurements to preserve the integrity of the supply chain.

A recent GAO report, however, reveals the Department of Energy is not utilizing this unique procurement authority.

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