GAO Denies Protest to LPTA Solicitation Ridden with Cost Uncertainty and Local Zoning Code Conflicts

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Nicole Pottroff

Federal agencies have long been afforded wide discretion in defining solicitation requirements to meet their contracting needs. But are a solicitation’s requirements acceptable even where they’re likely to conflict with local zoning codes? What about where the solicitation documents conflict with one another on whether certain requirements are considered “requirements” at all? And finally, is an LPTA procurement acceptable where such conflicts have undoubtedly led to price uncertainty among the bidders?

GAO says, “yes” to all of these, so long as the requirements meet the agency’s needs.

SmallGovCon Week In Review: March 4 – March 8, 2019

Posted on March 8, 2019 by SmallGovConContributor

Happy Friday, everyone! If there’s a better way to get the weekend started than the SmallGovCon Week In Review, we haven’t yet found it.

In this week’s edition, we’ll take a closer look at (never-ending) efforts to streamline the acquisition process, defense contractors that are putting workers in danger, projected #GovCon trends for 2019, proposed changes to SDVOSB and WOSB sole-source limits, and the FBI’s current investigation into the JEDI cloud procurement.

Have a great weekend!

GAO Investigates Buy American Act Exceptions and Waivers

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Shane McCall

The Buy American Act includes a number of waivers and exceptions. The Section 809 panel, for one, has called for expanding these exceptions, at least for the DOD. A recent GAO report examines how agencies apply the existing waivers and exceptions to the Buy American Act.

GAO’s general opinion is that agencies should improve their Buy American Act data reporting and enhance training on its waivers and for procument personnel. The report also provides some interesting details about the scope of the Buy American Act, and how agencies implement it.

Section 809 Panel Recommends Increased Flexibility of Time Frame to Spend DOD Contract Dollars

Posted on March 6, 2019 by Shane McCall

As we’ve written about before, the Section 809 Panel is the Congressionally-mandated group that has made a number of far-reaching recommendations to change current programs that affect DOD acquisitions.

The third volume of the Panel’s recommendations, stretching over 500 pages, includes a recommendation that DOD be granted additional flexibility to spend its appropriated dollars from Congress. As the Panel puts it, Congress should “[p]rovide increased flexibility to the time periods within which contract obligations are permitted to occur.”

GAO: Agencies Can’t Blindly Rely on Adjectival Ratings to Make Award Decisions

Posted on March 5, 2019 by SmallGovConContributor

In evaluating proposals, an agency will sometimes use “adjectival ratings” (e.g., Excellent, Good, Acceptable) to describe its assessment of a proposal or portions of a proposal. But, importantly, an agency cannot evade its responsibility to reasonably evaluate proposals–based on the articulated evaluation criteria–by deferring solely to the assigned adjectival ratings.

In other words, if the agency doesn’t perform a true qualitative assessment, but instead relies on mere labels to make its ultimate award decision, GAO will likely slap the agency’s hand.

Five Things You Should Know: Registering in SAM.gov

Posted on March 5, 2019 by SmallGovConContributor

Editor’s note: For more information, check out our updated post on registering in SAM.gov.

Everyone involved with government contracting knows, or should know, a little bit about registration in SAM.gov. Registration is now required for ALL federal contractors at the time they submit bids.

This blog post provides you with 5 things you should know about registering in SAM.gov.

SmallGovCon Week In Review February 25 – March 1, 2019

Posted on March 1, 2019 by SmallGovConContributor

Holy smokes, can you believe it’s already March? In just a few short weeks, spring will (finally) be here and Q1 will be at an end.

We hope that you’re gearing up for a nice weekend. But before you punch out, let’s take a look at the-week-that-was. In this edition of the Week In Review, we’ll try to put a maligned website out of its misery, look at increasing cybersecurity requirements, and explore a new Pentagon contract.

Have a great weekend!