GAO: Meaningful Discussions Must Disclose Proposal Weaknesses Discovered After a Corrective Action

Posted on August 25, 2021 by SmallGovCon Contributor

Given the amount of competition in most solicitations, the ability of a contractor to receive feedback on its proposal can provide valuable information to help the contractor hone its response to best address the key factors sought by the agency in its solicitation. On those rare occasions when an agency reopens its solicitation and provides feedback to the individual offeror’s initial proposal, the contractor is provided such an opportunity–except when the contractor gets left out of the feedback party.

In a recent decision, an agency failed to disclose a flaw it first identified in its reevaluation of a contractor’s unchanged proposal after a corrective action. When the proposals were evaluated after the corrective action, the contractor ended up losing an award for which they were previously selected. As a result, the contractor filed a protest primarily asserting that, because the agency failed to provide feedback on its proposal, the agency’s evaluation of the proposal was unreasonable. GAO sustained the protest.

FAR Issues Final Rule on Limitations on Subcontracting

Posted on August 23, 2021 by John Holtz

It has been a long time coming, but the Department of Defense, in conjunction with the GSA and NASA, are finally issuing a final rule amending the FAR guidance regarding limitations on subcontracting. In this post, we are going to explore just what these changes are and what they mean for government contractors such as yourself. The hope is this brief summary and analysis will provide you some insight as to just what the new rules do.

CIO-SP4 Amendment 11 Removes a Small Business Requirement

Posted on August 20, 2021 by Shane McCall

A quick update on CIO-SP4. NITAAC has issued amendment number 11 to CIO-SP4. It moves the deadline to August 27, and takes out some confusing language about small business teams.

Specifically, it has removed the language saying: “The small business prime must demonstrate how they will comply with the LOS by including in their Small Business Teaming Agreement the specific level of effort and how each will ensure compliance with 52.219-14.”

That is now deleted.

That is the only change of note from Amendment 11. As it was a confusing provision and had been vexing many small business teams, it’s good that NITAAC took it out. But did they have to wait until the last possible moment?

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: August 15-20, 2021

Posted on August 19, 2021 by Shane McCall

Happy Friday to all of our SmallGovCon readers and we hope you had a great week! This week saw some interesting federal contracting developments, such as several announcements from the SBA including an announcement to increase the amount of federal contracting dollars that go to small, disadvantaged businesses as well as the appointment of key Small Business Administration staff. Jay Bonci was also sworn in as the Air Force CTO, this week.

Read on for other news in federal government contracting.

Number of Small Businesses Awarded Federal Government Contracts Has Dropped 12.7% in Four Years

Posted on August 19, 2021 by Steven Koprince

The number of small businesses receiving government contracts dropped yet again in Fiscal Year 2020–and the four-year decline is 12.7%.

In its FY 2020 goaling scorecard, the SBA reported that 45,661 distinct small businesses received contracts in the top 100 NAICS codes. The previous fiscal year, 46,661 distinct small businesses received contracts. Four years ago, when SBA first started including this statistic in its annual reports, the number stood at 51,866. Clearly, the numbers are going in the wrong direction.

CIO-SP4 Amendment 10: More Changes and No Delay

Posted on August 17, 2021 by SmallGovCon Contributor

Amendment 10 clarifies obligated dollar values, how to have subcontracted federal work counted, restrictions to contractor participation in task areas, evaluation of contractor program manager(s), establishing a static date from which to calculate the three-year look-back for corporate experience relevance, and evaluation of labor rates.

Needless to say, there is a lot of things packed into Amendment 10, and here’s the kicker, proposals are still due August 20^th! With little time to digest, let alone alter, proposals in line with Amendment 10, NITAAC has left little room for offerors to catch up with the changes.

GAO: Multiple Contracts With Single Agency May Increase Conflict Risk

Posted on August 17, 2021 by SmallGovCon Contributor

As federal contractors begin to become engaged in multiple programs for a particular agency, the potential for the firm to encounter a situation where it finds itself involved in an organizational conflict of interest (OCI) may increase. This is particularly true with respect to “impaired objectivity” OCI, which is when a firm’s ability to render impartial advice to the government is or might be undermined by the firm’s competing interests. These OCIs often arise in service contracts where the contractor is placed in a position of evaluating its own performance on other contracts.

In a recent case, GAO found that an agency’s award of a contract created an impermissible impaired objectivity OCI for a contractor from two different perspectives for services that the contractor provided in the capacity as both a prime and subcontractor for an agency. The case is Steel Point Solutions, LLC B-419709,B-419709.2 (July 07, 2021).