SmallGovCon Week in Review: July 19-23

Happy Friday, Readers. Can you believe we are heading into the home stretch of July already? We hope you are able to get in some R&R around this time of year. But it was also an important week in the Federal government contracting arena.

Some of the big stories included more oversight from Labor, rules on increasing wages for workers, and increasing opportunities for veterans. You can read more about that and other contracting news in the articles below. Have a great weekend!

Continue reading…

GAO: A Higher Past Performance Rating For One Offeror Does Not Mean a Competitor Was Penalized

It seems like it should go without saying, but, just because an offeror with better evaluation ratings is preferred over one with neutral ratings does not mean the latter offeror was penalized for having neutral ratings, or that the neutral rating was a penalty. Nonetheless, in a recent bid protest a company creatively argued that it was penalized for having neutral ratings, and GAO unsurprisingly rejected it.

Continue reading…

SmallGovCon Week in Review: July 12-16

Happy Friday, readers! We hope you are enjoying the beautiful summer days. We here at SmallGovCon have definitely been getting out for some much needed vacation time lately. But we still want to keep you up to date on what’s going on in the federal contracting realm.

Here are a few noteworthy articles in the federal government contracting world this week, including looking back on the GAO and all the changes that have been made along the way as well as the DoD’s list of recent contract awards. Read on for all the details and have a great weekend.

Continue reading…

Five Things You Should Know: Tips for Understanding and Using the FAR

Government contracting officials receive detailed training on the FAR. So do employees of some large contractors. But for many others in government contracting, particularly small businesses, there is no formal FAR training. For them, the FAR can seem overwhelming, even scary.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it: the FAR is massive. In print form, which is how I read the FAR early in my career, you’re looking at a veritable brick of a book. You’d undoubtedly get some very nice definition by using copies of the FAR for bicep curls.

But, big as it is, the FAR isn’t quite as impenetrable as it might seem at first glance–especially if you know a few tricks. Here are my top five tips for understanding and using the FAR.

Continue reading…