Author Archives: Steven Koprince

SmallGovCon Week In Review: January 18-22, 2016

Posted on by

Hopefully those of you on the East Coast are hunkered down and ready for the historic snow storm headed your way.  And since many of our readers may be having a lot of unplanned time at home this weekend, we have the perfect idea to prevent boredom: catching up on the latest and greatest in government contracts news.

In this week’s edition of SmallGovCon Week In Review, a major investigation of the AbilityOne program is underway, Guy Timberlake offers some common sense advice on multiple-award contracts, and much more.

Continue reading →

SBA OHA: Shared Ownership In Eight Companies Caused Affiliation

Posted on by

Individuals who had common investments in eight different companies were treated as a single person for purposes of the SBA’s affiliation rules–and the aggregation of those owners’ interests cost one company a small business set-aside award.

In a recent decision, the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals explained how the little-understood common investments affiliation rule works, and in so doing, provided an important warning to business owners who may not realize that affiliation can result from common investments in multiple entities.

Continue reading →

SmallGovCon Week In Review: January 11-15, 2016

Posted on by

With half of January already in the books and the days already beginning to stay light longer, we can begin to dream about warm spring months ahead. That is, until you walk out the front door and a blast of winter air hits your face. But so long as it is cold outside, why not curl up somewhere warm with a little light government contracts reading?

In this week’s SmallGovCon Week in Review, we bring you articles involving fraud charges, a rundown of some new legislation that could affect contractors, the potential elimination of DUNS codes, plus much more.

Continue reading →

GAO: Incumbent Contractor Not Entitled To Highest Past Performance Rating

Posted on by

An incumbent contractor was not entitled to “extra credit” for its status as the incumbent, nor was the incumbent entitled to the highest-possible past performance rating.

In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO confirmed that the mere fact that an offeror is the incumbent contractor does not require the procuring agency to assign the offeror a particular past performance score, so long as the agency’s past performance evaluation is reasonable.

Continue reading →

SBA Size Determination “Not Relevant” To Subcontracting Limitation Allegation

Posted on by

A SBA size determination, in which the SBA found a contractor to be an eligible small business for purposes of a particular procurement, was irrelevant to the question of whether the same contractor would violate the limitation on subcontracting under a different solicitation.

In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO (correctly) rejected the procuring agency’s argument that a recent SBA size determination was evidence that a contractor would comply with the subcontracting limitation.

Continue reading →

New Bill Would Require “Transparency” In Small Business Goaling

Posted on by

A new bill introduced in the House of Representatives would require the SBA to count contracts performed overseas when calculating the government’s achievement of its small business goals.

The bill would codify a policy that the SBA already says it is in the process of adopting–and one that will likely lead to a perceived drop in the government’s small business goaling achievement in Fiscal Year 2016.

Continue reading →

CPAR Challenge Wasn’t A Viable “Protest,” Says Federal Court

Posted on by

A contractor’s attempt to challenge an adverse Contractor Performance Assessment Report was not a bid protest subject to the bid protest jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

In a recent decision, the Court rejected a protester’s creative attempt to challenge a CPAR as part of a bid protest.  Instead, the Court held, a CPAR ordinarily must be challenged through the FAR’s claims and appeals processes–although the Court appeared to leave the door open to bid protest challenges in limited circumstances.

Continue reading →