On August 17, 2018, the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA) issued new procedural rules which go into effect Monday, September 17, 2018. The substantial overhaul of the former rules intends to bring the CBCA into the 21st century by emphasizing, adding, and clarifying rules about electronic filing.
SmallGovCon Week in Review: September 10-14, 2018
Another week has flown by, which means that it’s time for the SmallGovCon Week in Review. In this week’s edition, we’ll take a look at Uncle Sam’s “cloud spending splurge,” a new GSA bid on a vendor verification system, frustrations with the VA’s verification process, the looming year-end spending binge, and more.
Have a great weekend!
Where Non-Price Ratings Identical, Agency Wasn’t Required to Choose Lower-Priced Offeror
In a best value competition, when two offerors receive identical adjectival scores on the non-price factors, one might assume that the procuring agency would be required to award the contract to the lower-priced offeror.
Not so. In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that where two offerors received identical scores on three non-price factors, the agency could still elect to award the contract to the higher-priced offeror.
SBA OIG Recommends Improved Oversight of 8(a) Continuing Eligibility
Last year, we wrote about the SBA’s Office of Inspector General’s concerns with the SBA’s review of potential 8(a) participants’ eligibility. In this report, the OIG made three recommendations aimed at improving to verify applicants’ eligibility.
Just last week, the OIG released a new report analyzing the 8(a) Program. This report picks up where the earlier report left off—it addressed several issues in the SBA’s evaluation of participants’ continuing eligibility.
The results of this report are rather alarming: based on its review, the OIG identified almost $127 million in 8(a) set-aside awards to ineligible firms.
Recent SBA OHA Decision Offers NAICS Code Appeal Guidance
As we’ve noted here on SmallGovCon, appealing the assignment of a NAICS code for a solicitation is often successful. But the time frame for doing so is short, and there are other procedural limitations. Given the short deadlines and procedural hurdles, are there any signals to help identify when a NAICS code appeal might be in order?
Recently, SBA’s Office of Hearings and Appeals provided some guidelines in discussing the assignment of NAICS codes in the Computer Facilities Management Services, Research and Development, and Engineering Services codes.
Don’t Overlook the Seemingly Perfunctory in Your Proposal: CAGE Codes
As our readers well know, a good proposal for a federal government procurement is an exercise in persuasive writing. You muster your creative powers to convince the source selection authority that you offer the best product or service, that your price is competitive, and that your past performance is stellar. So you invest heavily in your proposal writers; you review your proposal repeatedly to polish and ensure that it compels; you agonize.
But while the artistic portion of your proposal is, without dispute, extraordinarily important, don’t neglect the seemingly mundane–like CAGE codes. Get that wrong, and GAO just might sustain your competitor’s protest.
SmallGovCon Week in Review: September 3-7, 2018
Happy Friday, everybody!
As always, we wanted to bring you a roundup of government contracting news. In this week’s edition of the SmallGovCon Week in Review, we’ll take a look at some potential updates to GSA contracts, reminders of the trouble that comes along with defrauding the government, and more.
Have a great weekend!