As we head into the final week of August, there is plenty going on in the world of government contracting. In this week’s SmallGovCon Week In Review, an in-depth article on alleged 8(a) fraud, a contractor is hit with felony charges for bribing a government official, and much more.
Agency Pulls A Fast One At GAO–And Gets Caught
After a protest was filed at the GAO, a procuring agency delayed implementing the mandatory statutory suspension of work, then amended the awardee’s contract to permit the awardee to fully perform before the suspension actually kicked in.
Then the agency got caught.
In a recent decision, the GAO sustained a protest because the agency had circumvented the GAO’s bid protest process. But while the agency got busted–a good thing–the penalty it will pay is less than satisfactory.
No GAO Jurisdiction Where Government Receives “De Minimis” Value
GAO lacks jurisdiction to decide a protest relating to a solicitation under which the government will receive de minimis value.
De minimis is a fancy Latin term meaning, essentially, “not much.” In one recent bid protest decision, GAO held that it lacked jurisdiction to consider a protester’s challenge to the terms of a solicitation because the solicitation called for the contractor to purchase scrap metal from the government, not the other way around.
DBE Fraud: $5 Million Settlement In Pass-Through Case
A large business has agreed to pay nearly $5 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that it participated in a “pass-through” scheme designed to take advantage of the Department of Transportation’s Disadvantaged Business Entity program.
According to a Department of Justice press release, HD Supply Waterworks conspired with subcontractors to list a now-defunct Native American-owned company as a subcontractor, when in fact the subcontractor’s work was passed through to Waterworks.
SmallGovCon Week In Review: August 10-14, 2015
As the summer begins winding down, there is no shortage of government contracting news. In this week’s SmallGovCon Week in Review, contractors push back against the executive order on sick leave, steps are being taken to strengthen cybersecurity requirements for contractors, the GAO recommends that agencies pursue deeper discounts when using the GSA Schedule, and more.
GAO: ASFI Website Is No FedBizOpps
Under the GAO’s bid protest rules, an offeror is not presumed to have knowledge of information published on the Army’s Single Face to Industry (ASFI) website.
In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that an offeror did not have “constructive knowledge” of an amendment posted on the ASFI because, unlike FedBizOpps, the ASFI has not been designated as a government-wide point of entry for the publication of solicitations.
Buy Indian Act: 105 Years (And Counting) Of Frustration
In 1910, William Howard Taft lived in the White House, the Chicago Cubs were just two years removed from back-to-back World Series titles, and Arizona had yet to be admitted to the Union. That summer, Congress passed the Buy Indian Act, a statute authorizing a special federal contracting program for Indian-owned businesses.
Since then, it has been mostly downhill. It took the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) 103 years to issue regulations implementing the Act’s contracting preferences. Now that the regulations are finally in place, the Buy Indian Act program is suffering from lack of effective oversight and implementation. In fact, a recent GAO report found that the BIA and the Indian Health Service could not even clearly articulate whether Buy Indian Act set-aside contracts take priority over other set-asides.
If the Buy Indian Act is ever to live up to its potential, significant changes are needed.