Here at SmallGovCon, we often write about nuanced, complex government contracting legal issues. This isn’t one of them.
The moral of today’s story comes straight from the personal superhero files of Captain Obvious: not reading the performance work statement in your own contract is a pretty bad idea.
Whether you are an active small business federal contractor, or an entrepreneur still getting your business off the ground, you are going to need a cybersecurity plan. Many DoD contractors, in particular, face a pending deadline to comply with NIST 800-171, as mandated by DFARS 252.204-7012.
The Kansas SBDC Cybersecurity Center for Small Business wants to help.
Small government contractors lost an important ally last week–and many of us lost a great friend.
Becky Peterson, the longtime Interim Executive Director of the Association of Procurement Technical Centers, passed away on Thursday. Her legacy lives on in the amazing network of PTACs across the country.
According to USASpending.gov, the government spent $472,158,562,285 last year through contracting for services and products with large and small companies nationwide. This was a $34 billion increase over the previous year, and 2017 is anticipating another increase, especially in Department of Defense spending. None of the noted totals include entitlements, grants or non-contract obligations.
The real questions most contractors ask are what does the government really want, and how does it decide who wins what contract?
It’s been more than a year since the SBA issued a final rule overhauling the limitations on subcontracting for small business contracts. The SBA’s rule, now codified at 13 C.F.R. 125.6, changes the formulas for calculating compliance with the limitations on subcontracting, and allows small businesses to take credit for work performed by similarly situated subcontractors.
But the FAR’s corresponding clauses have yet to be changed, and this has led to a lot of confusion about which rule applies–especially since many contracting officers abide by the legally-dubious proposition that “if it ain’t in the FAR, it doesn’t count.” Now, finally, there is some good news: the FAR Council is moving forward with a proposed rule to align the FAR with the SBA’s regulations.
The GAO estimates that 27 percent of DoD mentor-protege agreements are deficient.
In a comprehensive new report, the GAO says that many active DoD mentor-protege agreements are missing basic (and necessary) information, like the protege’s primary NAICS code. Also missing, in some cases: the parties’ signatures.
The SBA has published a list of active All Small mentor-protege agreements. The list, which is available on the SBA’s website, is dated April 5, 2017. It’s not clear how often the SBA intends to update the list.
The April 5 list reveals that there are approximately 90 active All Small mentor-protege agreements, covering a wide variety of primary industry classifications. All major socioeconomic categories (small business, 8(a), SDVOSB, HUBZone, EDWOSB and WOSB) are represented.
There’s no reason why mentor-protege pairings should be a secret. Kudos to the SBA for publishing the list, which will be useful to contracting officers and industry alike (as well as those of us who are simply curious by nature).