Thank You, NACA!

Posted on November 8, 2017 by Steven Koprince

I am back in Lawrence after a great trip to Washington, DC where I attended the Native American Contractors Association 2017 Federal Contracting Policy and Advocacy Conference. I was part of a great panel yesterday on the future of federal contracting. The panel spoke about GAO bid protests, the move away from lowest-price technically-acceptable procurements, the need to improve the HUBZone program, and other important topics facing the contracting community in the years to come.

A huge “thank you” to Mike Anderson, Chelsea Fish, and the entire NACA leadership team for organizing this fantastic event and inviting me to participate. And a big thanks also to everyone who attended the panel and stopped by the Koprince Law LLC booth. It was wonderful to see so many old friends and make plenty of new ones.

Next on my travel agenda: the National Veterans Small Business Engagement. If you will be attending the NVSBE, I look forward to seeing you in St. Louis.

Salient Characteristics in Government Solicitations: Close Isn’t Good Enough

Posted on November 6, 2017 by SmallGovConContributor

It’s a Sunday afternoon and instead of watching football, you’re shopping for a new refrigerator. You explain to the salesman your must-haves: a black refrigerator with a bottom-drawer freezer and an in-door water dispenser. But rather than showing you refrigerators that meet your criteria, he insists on showing you stainless steel models with the freezer on the side.

If the refrigerator doesn’t meet your needs (or your wants), odds are you won’t buy it. The federal government is no different: if it identifies salient characteristics in a solicitation, proposals that deviate from them likely aren’t going to win the award.

SmallGovCon Week In Review: October 30-November 3, 2017

Posted on November 3, 2017 by Steven Koprince

Although the temperatures outside may be dropping, things are heating up in the contracting world. Now one month into the 2018 federal fiscal year, agencies have new budgets and there is a lot money to be spent. We will keep a close eye on awards, regulation changes, and related issues to federal contracting all year long, right here on SmallGovCon.

Let’s get the weekend started off by recapping the latest federal contracting news. In this edition of SmallGovCon Week In Review, we look at the potential for a DUNS replacement, a three-year prison sentence for accepting kickbacks in exchange for contracts, awards for GSA’s $5 billion VETS 2 IT services vehicle, and much more.

GAO: Email Delivery Receipt Didn’t Confirm Proposal Submission

Posted on November 2, 2017 by Shane McCall

You might think that if you send an email with the delivery receipt option and the delivery receipt comes back, the email was delivered. But when an offeror submits a proposal by email, does a delivery receipt mean that the agency necessarily received the proposal in its inbox?

At least under the facts of one recent GAO bid protest, the answer was “no.” In that case, the GAO held that an email delivery receipt wasn’t sufficient to demonstrate that the agency received the electronic proposal.

8(a) Program: Participant Terminated For Missing Annual Review

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Steven Koprince

Participants in the SBA’s 8(a) Program must timely submit their annual review packages to the SBA.

In a recent decision, the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals held that the SBA may terminate a participant from the 8(a) Program for failing to provide the required information–even if the 8(a) company’s owner has had personal difficulties that contributed to the failure.

Protest of Approved-Source Restriction Must Be Filed Before Proposal Deadline

Posted on October 27, 2017 by Shane McCall

I was grocery shopping the other day, and I had to make the tough choice between the name-brand cereal and the store-brand cereal. I don’t know about you, but with some products, the name brand has a certain flavor that the store brand just can’t replicate. When it comes to government contracts, the same is true–sometimes the government wants a certain brand or supplier and will accept no substitutes.

GAO recently held that, where an agency required quotations including parts from one approved source of supply, and an offer is submitted that proposes an “alternate product,” the agency can reasonably reject the bid–and that a protest of the approved source restriction itself is untimely if it isn’t filed before the proposal deadline.

Presumptive Awardee Ineligible to Challenge Solicitation Terms, Says GAO

Posted on October 27, 2017 by SmallGovCon Contributor

If you’re a winner under a solicitation, you can’t challenge the ground rules under which you won–at least under the facts of a recent GAO bid protest decision.

In that decision, GAO concluded that the protestor of a solicitation’s terms lacked standing when the protester was subsequently identified as an awardee under the solicitation.