I’m excited to announce that I am featured on the Contracting Officer Podcast, hosted by Kevin Jans and Paul Schauer! The episode is available here (Apple podcast here) and, in it, I discuss three common forms of contractor relationships: Teaming Agreements, Joint Venture Agreements, and the federal Mentor-Protégé Program. Be sure to check out this episode and the plethora of other podcast topics, helpful to both beginning and experienced federal contractors.
SmallGovCon Week in Review: Mar. 8 – Mar. 12, 2021
Happy Friday, SmallGovCon readers. The new movie Yes Day comes out today: a day where parents let kids be in charge for a day. And yes, we may be doing a similar thing at our house. For federal contractors, it may feel like it is always Yes Day when responding to government requests. But it can help to know just when you have to say yes to the government, and when you don’t have to.
Staying up to date with the latest in federal contracting can help when responding to the government. The updates this week included extension of leave reimbursement for contractors and other benefits for contractors in the latest COVID relief package, a DoD audit report about overpayments to contractors, and list of scams targeting SAM users.
Continue reading…8(a) Joint Venture Fraud Allegations Lead to False Claims Act Settlement
The SBA’s joint venture rules can be strict. Mistakes like failing to update a joint venture agreement, inserting ambiguous provisions in a joint venture agreement, or relying on an expired mentor-protege agreement can be costly.
Good faith mistakes are one thing–the joint venture may lose out on a contract, but probably won’t face other penalties. But when the government believes that a contractor knowingly violated the joint venture rules, the repercussions can be much more serious–as seen in a recent False Claims Act settlement involving allegations of fraud under the 8(a) joint venture regulations.
Continue reading…GAO Finds Agency’s Technical Evaluation Inadequate, but Refuses to Invalidate Award
Leasing office space in a flood plain seems like a bad idea. Most people want an office with a view, but not a view of their office desk floating down a first-floor hallway. In a recent protest decision, GAO said that the agency failed to adequately document its evaluation, despite its own solicitation requirements.
But even when your protest is sustained, GAO may still recommend the award remain in place. How can that be? Follow along, while I lead you through what you need to know.
Continue reading…Happy International Women’s Day From SmallGovCon!
We at SmallGovCon just wanted to take a minute to wish all the amazing women out there a Happy International Women’s Day! And we would like to send a special shout-out to all of our WOSBs and EDWOSBs while we are at it!
Here’s to commemorating women’s history of achievement and celebrating the bright future to come!
SBA Answers Questions on 8(a) Program Extension
For those who didn’t see it, SBA recently put out guidance on how the 8(a) program term extension will work. The guidance provides some nice examples of how the process will play out.
Continue reading…SmallGovCon Week in Review: Mar. 1 – Mar. 5, 2021
Next week is spring break in these parts. The weather should be great and I hope all of our readers are able to enjoy it! It’s also getting down to the finals of the college basketball season. It won’t be the same as last year for the KU Jayhawks, but they should still have a good showing in the tournament.
This week saw some important updates in federal contracting, such as a prediction on defense spending under the Biden administration, a delay of independent contractor status rules under FLSA, and DoD employee ethics reminders.
Continue reading…