Author Archives: Steven Koprince

8(a) Mentor-Protege JV Didn’t Qualify For SDVOSB Set-Aside, Says SBA OHA

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An 8(a) mentor-protege joint venture didn’t qualify for an SDVOSB set-aside because the mentor firm was not a small business.

In a recent decision, the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals held that a SDVOSB-specific regulation requires all members of an SDVOSB joint venture to be small–notwithstanding language in the SBA’s size regulations and 8(a) Program regulations specifying that an SBA-approved mentor-protege joint venture may bid, as a small business, on any government contractor or subcontract, provided that the protege is small.

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SmallGovCon Week In Review: April 25-29, 2016

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As a North Dakota native, I was excited to see a NDSU graduate picked second overall in last night’s NFL draft.  With the draft complete, my focus is back to government contracts news and notes from around the country.

In this week’s SmallGovCon Week In Review, we take a look at how the DoD is working on a long process of acquisition improvement, the 2015 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard has been released, a proposed amendment looks to help small business and much more.

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Thank You, Texas!

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I am back in Lawrence after a great trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth area for the Alliance Texas procurement conference.  At the conference, I was part of a panel discussion on the legal aspects of joint venturing and teaming for small government contractors.

Many thanks to Cathy Doerr and the ShoWorks team for organizing this great event, Stephanie Lewis of the SBA for moderating the panel, and John Ruiz of Miratek for his insightful discussion of his company’s experiences with teaming.  And of course, thanks most of all to the small business owners and others who attended the panel and stopped by the Koprince Law trade show booth.  I enjoyed meeting everyone.

ShoWorks’ series of Alliance procurement conferences doesn’t end in Texas.  Up next: Alliance Baltimore on November 10.  As for me, I’ll next be traveling to the Quad Cities for the annual Midwest Small Business Government Contracting Symposium.  I hope to see you there!

8(a) Program: Utah SBA Imposes Tough New Restrictions on JVs & MPAs

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The SBA’s Utah District Office has imposed tough new restrictions on the approval of 8(a) mentor-protege agreements and joint ventures.

The Utah SBA obviously hopes that these restrictions will lead to more successful 8(a) mentor-protege and joint venture relationships–but I worry that these District-specific restrictions may backfire, and put Utah 8(a)s at a significant competitive disadvantage against 8(a)s serviced by other SBA District Offices.

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SmallGovCon Week In Review: April 18-22, 2016

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Time seems to be flying by, as April already marks the halfway point for the 2016 fiscal year. It won’t be long before procuring agencies are scrambling to get their dollars spent in the fourth quarter.

While contractors work on getting their piece of the annual fourth quarter pie, it’s time for our weekly look at news and notes from the world of federal contracting.  In this week’s edition of SmallGovCon Week In Review, we look at key federal spending date for the first two quarters, the GSA’s plans to reopen the dormant Schedule 75, the SBA’s adoption of new regulations for its Surety Bond Guarantee Program, and much  more.

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GAO: Offeror’s High Labor Hours Need Not Be Raised In Discussions

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An agency was not required to inform an offeror that its proposed base year labor hours were too high, even though the offeror proposed more than twice as many labor hours as the awardee.

In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that a procuring agency did not act improperly by failing to raise the protester’s high labor hours in discussions, because the protester’s labor hours, while much higher than the awardee’s, were not deemed unacceptably high under the RFQ’s lowest-price, technically acceptable evaluation scheme.

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Nonmanufacturer Rule Violation Leads To Default Termination

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A procuring agency appropriately terminated a small business set-aside contract for default when the SBA determined, after contract award, that the prime contractor was not complying with the nonmanufacturer rule.

A recent decision of the Armed Service Board of Contract Appeals involved a very interesting factual situation, in which the small business in question told the SBA that it planned to perform the contract in compliance with the nonmanufacturer rule, but then failed to do so.  This failure, according to the ASBCA, justified a default termination.

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