Despite a longstanding and very common misconception, the VA’s SDVOSB verification requirement doesn’t apply to non-VA SDVOSB contracts.
As the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals recently reiterated, it was “simply not correct” to believe that a company was required to be verified in VetBiz to be awarded a non-VA SDVOSB contract.
I am back in the Midwest after a great trip to San Diego for the 2018 Department of the Navy Gold Coast Small Business Procurement Event. I was part of a PTAC-sponsored legal panel on small business issues, and enjoyed speaking with contractors, government representatives, and others on the trade show floor.
Thank you very much to the San Diego chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association for sponsoring this fantastic event and inviting me to speak. And a big thank you to the many contractors who attended the session and asked great questions.
If you haven’t had the pleasure of attending Gold Coast, I strongly encourage you to put it on your radar screen for 2019. It’s hard to beat a great conference in a great city. As for me, I’ll be hitting the road again soon: I will be in Norman, Oklahoma on August 21 and 22 for the annual Indian Country Business Summit. Hope to see you there!
A small business “can have no more than two [SBA] mentors over the life of the business,” according to the SBA’s All Small Mentor-Protege Program website.
The SBA’s clarification of the lifetime limit provides important guidance for proteges, especially because the SBA’s mentor-protege regulations aren’t exactly crystal clear when it comes to this point. The SBA’s limit ensures that small businesses don’t become permanent proteges–but is “two per lifetime” the best way to carry out that policy?
NAICS code appeals can be powerful tools. A change in a solicitation’s NAICS code–and corresponding change in the small business size standard–can significantly broaden or narrow the competitive playing field. And statistically speaking, NAICS code appeals are often successful.
But NAICS code appeals are subject to strict rules. As a recent SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals case confirms, NAICS code appeals cannot be lodged against presolicitations.
I am excited to announce the publication of SBA Small Business Size and Affiliation Rules, the second volume in our series of new government contracting guides called “Koprince Law LLC GovCon Handbooks.”
Written in plain English and packed with easy-to-understand examples, this GovCon Handbook demystifies the SBA’s rules regarding small business status for government contracts.
Unless an agency designates different business hours, the FAR says that a government agency is deemed to close at 4:30 p.m. local time–not 5:00 p.m., as it would be easy to assume.
In a recent case, the 4:30 p.m. closing time cost an unsuccessful offeror a chance at a GAO protest because the offeror’s debriefing request, sent to the agency at 4:59 p.m., was deemed untimely.
Here’s a situation my colleagues and I see with some frequency: a contractor, in the course of working on a government contract, submits a request of some sort to the agency. Then waits for a response. And waits some more. Meanwhile, the government’s delay in responding prevents the contractor from moving forward with some aspect of the project, causing the contractor to incur costs.
For contractors faced with this type of government inaction, a recent decision by the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals is welcome news. In that case, the ASBCA held that the government breached its implied duty of good faith and fair dealing by waiting more than three months to respond to the contractor’s request to amend the Statement of Work–allowing the contractor to “twist in the wind” during that period.