The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has offered participants in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development Program the opportunity to tell Congress about their views and experience in the program.
Continue reading…SmallGovCon Week in Review: June 7-June 11, 2021
Happy Friday! It’s been a busy week in federal government contracting news. Among the notable announcements, Federal agencies are staffing up and a new IRS web app has been announced. The Treasury Department laid out its updated vision for its financial management shared services offerings and some companies are considering opting out of working with the Defense Department because of the cost of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program.
Have a great weekend.
Continue reading…Recent Task Force Meeting Underscores Challenges Facing SDVOSB Transfer from VA to SBA
Sometimes, task force meetings are held just for the sake of having meetings. However, on June 2nd and 3rd the Interagency Task Force on Veterans Small Business Development (IATF) and Advisory Committee on Veterans Business Affairs (ACVBA) met to discuss important issues facing small businesses. This shed much needed light on the issues fast approaching and what steps the SBA needs to take.
The main topic of discussion was the pending CVE transfer. The transfer, as I soon found out, is deceptively complex. In a separate point, SBA noted that the Biden Administration announced it will use the purchase power of the federal government to make more awards to disadvantaged businesses, raising the target from 5% to 10%.
The star of the show, however, was the CVE transfer. So, what does this mean for you?
Continue reading…GAO Considers Receipt of Email During Regular Business Hours Adequate Notice
A recent GAO decision provides a costly lesson about the importance of having internal procedures to receive and respond to official e-mail communications when a company team member is unavailable. The stakes can be big–GAO recently dismissed a contractor’s protest challenging the Department of State’s decision to cancel a solicitation. The question in this matter revolved around when a party is deemed to have received constructive notice of an agency’s cancellation of a solicitation.
Continue reading…Koprince Law Welcomes Kevin Wickliffe
We are pleased to announce that Kevin Wickliffe has joined our team of government contracts attorney-authors here at Koprince Law. Before joining our team, Kevin served as general counsel and chief compliance officer at a federally registered institutional, manager-of-managers, investment adviser. His combined regulatory compliance, business, and legal experience give him a unique perspective in providing legal assistance on transactional matters and in interpreting the government’s complex rules and regulations. Check out Kevin’s full biography to learn more about our newest attorney, and don’t miss his first SmallGovCon post concerning email notice for bid protests.
Agency Properly Awarded Contract to Company with Nine Negative CPARs
Among some contractors, it’s taken as an article of faith that even a single negative Contractor Performance Assessment Report will effectively preclude the contractor from winning new government work.
While it’s undoubtedly true, in my opinion, that some Contracting Officers place too much emphasis on a single less-than-perfect CPAR, it’s also true that a contractor with multiple negative CPARs can still win government contracts, so long as the government reasonably believes that the contractor can successfully perform the new work. Case in point: a recent GAO bid protest decision upholding an award to a company with nine (count ’em!) recent, relevant and negative CPARs.
Continue reading…Event: Government Contracting Ethics, Hosted by Govology
In the commercial world, it’s normal to buy a good customer a holiday gift. But when your customer is Uncle Sam, you might break the law by giving that same gift.
The government contracting ethics rules aren’t always as cut-and-dried as “don’t give the contracting officer a briefcase full of unmarked bills” (although you shouldn’t do that, either!) and the government’s rules sometimes vary from commercial norms. On June 10, please join me and Shane McCall as we cover the key ethics and related rules contractors should know, including gift/gratuity rules, the False Claims Act, Procurement Integrity Act, anti-kickback rules, contingency fee restrictions, conflicts of interest and much more.
This webinar is hosted by our friends at Govology and it’s easy to register: just click here. Shane and I hope to see you on June 10!