A subsidiary cannot file an SBA size protest on behalf of its parent company.
Last week, I wrote about an SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals case holding that a parent couldn’t file a size appeal on behalf of its subsidiary. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that the same principles apply to initial size protests, too.
Love was in the air this week with Valentine’s Day falling on Wednesday. If all the chocolate and flowers distracted you from the latest and greatest in government contracting news, you’re in luck. It’s time for our weekly roundup, the SmallGovCon Week in Review.
In today’s edition, a California father-and-son team pleaded guilty to using false financial statements and other lies in order to win more than $4 million in federal contracts, one commentator says the Department of Homeland Security must improve the quality of post-award debriefings, the GSA awarded its Alliant 2 small business small contract on Wednesday, and much more.
When an agency solicits competitive proposals to establish multiple blanket purchase agreements, the agency may include “on-ramp” procedures to potentially award additional BPAs at a later date.
In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO confirmed that the FAR allows agencies to use on-ramp procedures to add additional BPAs–and that on-ramped BPA holders don’t enjoy an inherent unfair competitive advantage, at least not under the facts at issue.
An SBA size appeal must be filed by someone “adversely affected by a size determination.” Because parent and subsidiary companies are not directly affected by contracts bid upon by their corporate affiliates, those entities cannot file SBA size appeals on behalf of one another.
In a recent size appeal decisions, OHA confirmed that a parent company cannot file a size appeal on behalf of a subsidiary.
It has been a cold week here in Lawrence, Kansas. I hope everyone is staying warm. It’s time to get some hot cocoa (or the Friday afternoon beverage of your choice) and enjoy the top government contracting news and notes for the week.
This week’s news includes the release of the major Section 809 Panel’s first acquisition reform report, a Maryland company pays the government more than half a million dollars to settle False Claims Act allegations relating to unallowable costs, HHS agency officials are heading on a cross-country tour to demystify selling to the government, the GAO says that the SBIR and STTR databases are riddled with errors, and much more.
The FAR and DFARS have 27 distinct definitions of the term “subcontract,” according to an acquisition reform panel.
In its first report, the Section 809 Panel urges policymakers to adopt a consolidated definition of the term “subcontract,” as well as a common definition of “subcontractor,” a term that has 21 distinct definitions in the FAR and DFARS.
The number of DoD small business contract actions has dropped almost 70 percent since Fiscal Year 2011, even as the total number of small business dollars increased significantly. This is one of the important new findings from an acquisition reform panel’s initial report.
The Advisory Panel on Streamlining and Codifying Acquisition Regulations–better known as the Section 809 Panel–recently released the first in an anticipated three-volume series of reports on ways to potentially reform and improve DoD acquisitions. The report, which clocks in at a whopping 642 pages, includes a detailed section on DoD small business acquisitions–and suggests that DoD’s focus on achieving dollar-based small business goals has obscured the fact that far fewer small businesses have been awarded DoD contracts in recent years.