Category Archives: 8(a) Program

Posts dealing with the 8(a) business development program, including 8(a) admissions and eligiblity, requests for reconsideration, ongoing eligibility and compliance, and related matters.

SBA 8(a) Program: Participant Terminated For Missing Annual Report

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When it comes to the regulations governing small government contractors, lateness can lead to tough consequences.  For instance, responding late to a small business size protest might cause the SBA to conclude that the contractor is a large business, and a late proposal submission can get a bid tossed out.

Lateness can also lead to severe consequences within the SBA 8(a) program.  In a recent decision, the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals held that the SBA properly terminated an 8(a) program participant because the participant had failed to submit a complete 8(a) annual report–months after the deadline had passed.

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8(a) Program: OHA Judge Slams SBA For Claim It Cannot Play DVDs

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The SBA’s claim that it could not access information provided by an 8(a) program applicant in DVD format was “not credible,” according to a recent 8(a) program appeal ruling issued by the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals.

In Sunrise Staffing, SBA No. BDPE-499 (2013), the SBA OHA–in an unusually sharply-worded opinion–rejected the SBA’s excuses for not reviewing relevant information provided by the 8(a) program applicant, and granted the applicant’s 8(a) appeal.

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8(a) Program: Lack Of Business Development Effort Results In Termination

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An 8(a) firm’s failure to actively pursue its business has caused the SBA to terminate the firm from the 8(a) program.

Upholding the termination, the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals noted that if an 8(a) firm’s fails to make substantial and sustained efforts to obtain business, the SBA is justified in kicking the firm out of the 8(a) program.

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Economic Dependence Affiliation Can Be Created By Single Contract

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Economic dependence affiliation under the SBA’s affiliation rules can be created by a single ongoing contract, according to the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals.

In a recent size appeal decision, SBA OHA held that a single contract amounting to more than 90% of an 8(a) applicant’s revenues over two years resulted in economic dependence affiliation.

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8(a) Joint Ventures Are Not 8(a) Program Participants, Says SBA OHA

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8(a) joint ventures are not 8(a) program participants, according to a recent (and commonsense) decision of the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals.

In its decision, SBA rejected a joint venture’s argument that its 8(a) joint venture agreement was essentially an 8(a) program application, drawing a jurisdictional decision between 8(a) program certification and 8(a) joint venture agreement approval.

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SBA 8(a) Program: Termination For “Full Time Employment” Violation Upheld

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A participant in the SBA’s 8(a) Program was appropriately terminated because the company’s disadvantaged owner took another full-time job without the SBA’s permission.

The recent SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals decision upholding the termination is an important reminder of the limitations on outside employment for 8(a) owners–as well as a reminder of the importance to 8(a) firms of ongoing honesty and forthrightness with the SBA.

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SBA: 8(a) Prime/Sub Teaming Agreements Do Not Require Prior Approval

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SBA 8(a) participants need not obtain the SBA’s prior approval of prime/subcontractor teaming agreements, according to an SBA statement made in a GAO bid protest case.

The SBA’s position makes sense, because the SBA’s regulations only call for prior approval of joint venture agreements.  However, one former 8(a) company might be hopping mad over the SBA’s stated position, because that company was terminated from the 8(a) program for–you guessed it–failing to obtain the SBA’s prior approval of a teaming agreement.

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