GAO Dismisses Challenge to Brief Explanation of Award

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Depending on the type of procurement, an agency will often provide either a brief explanation or debriefing after an award is made. But those explanations are difficult to challenge, as a recent GAO decision confirmed.

In the decision, GAO dismissed a protester’s challenge to the sufficiency of a two-paragraph explanation. Protester failed to show competitive prejudice or regulatory deficiency in the explanation. Since the protester could not demonstrate either of these conditions resulted from the explanation, GAO dismissed these allegations.

When protesting to GAO after receiving a brief explanation, what do you need to know in order to get your foot in the door? Let’s take a look.

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OHA: CVE Appeals Go Directly to Us, Not CVE

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OHA recently confirmed it lacked jurisdiction over a CVE appeal mistakenly filed with CVE, not OHA, by the deadline. You might be thinking: “Oh come on, the CVE appeal was filed with CVE on time!” But OHA’s strict timeliness rules make no exception for any such mistakes in the CVE appeal process. In fact, OHA disclaims the authority to even consider a late appeal, regardless of whether or not it was timely (but improperly) filed with CVE itself.

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Event: Proactive COVID-19 Response for Federal Government Contractors

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With COVID-19 cases on the rise, all of us are doing our best to stay safe and healthy. But for federal contractors, the COVID spike also brings increased risks of delays and other problems under active government contracts.

On Thursday, December 3, please join me for “COVID-19: Best Practices for Government Contractors,” a virtual session hosted by the UTSA SBDC Center for Government Contracting/COVID Business Recovery Accelerator. I’ll provide you with a step-by-step proactive approach for handling the potential for COVID-related interruptions and delays to your contracts–and help you ensure that you get paid.

To register, follow this link. I hope to see you there!

VA CVE Applications: Average Processing Time is 34 Days

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In some circles, the VA CVE application process for SDVOSB/VOSB certification has a reputation as being very cumbersome and time-consuming. But while applying for verification isn’t exactly fun, it doesn’t take an extraordinarily long time for most new applicants to be verified. In fact, according to the VA’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, the average processing time is a mere 34 days.

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Event: SAM Profiles with Carroll Bernard of Govology

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Raise your hand if you love completing your SAM profile! Um, anyone? Anyone?

Love it or hate it, SAM is a fact of life for government contractors, and it’s very important to get it right. Mistakes on your SAM profile (including those seemingly never-ending “reps and certs”) can come back to haunt you.

On December 1, please join me and Carroll Bernard, the co-founder of Govology, as we discuss how to set up your SAM profile–properly! Just click here to register. Hope to see you then!

OHA: Multiple Service-Disabled Veterans Control Company, Despite Internal Dispute

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Control over a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business can be held by multiple service-disabled veterans. Having control reside in multiple individuals can make things a little more complicated, though. SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals recently examined a situation where multiple service-disabled veterans shared control of a company, but did not have a united front when responding to information requests concerning a company’s eligibility.

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