A former employee could not represent a contractor in an appeal filed with the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, even though the contractor’s owner had asked the former employee to serve as its representative.
In a recent decision, the ASBCA reiterated that, under its rules, a corporation must be represented by an officer or an attorney. A former employee does not qualify.
A former 8(a) program participant has agreed to pay nearly $8 million to settle allegations of 8(a) program fraud.
According to a Department of Justice press release, LB&B Associates Inc. will pay $7.8 million to resolve claims that it improperly obtained 8(a) certification (and 8(a) contracts) even though it was not controlled by a disadvantaged individual.
Later this year, the Supreme Court will take up the case of Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States. The Court will decide whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was correct to find that the VA need not give SDVOSBs and VOSBs a contracting preference so long as the VA is meeting its SDVOSB and VOSB goals.
If you follow SmallGovCon, you know my position: I think the Federal Circuit’s ruling was fundamentally flawed. Last week, I spoke with Francis Rose of Federal News Radio about the case. Click here to listen to my interview with Francis, and be sure to tune in to In Depth With Francis Rose weekdays from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Eastern on Federal News Radio.
NAICS code appeals are now allowed on unrestricted procurements, so long as a change in NAICS code would affect the offeror’s size status for the procurement.
In a recent size appeal decision, the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals confirmed that recent SBA regulatory amendments have overturned prior OHA case law prohibiting most NAICS code appeals on unrestricted procurements.
The government awarded 24.99% of prime contracting dollars to small businesses in Fiscal Year 2014, a sharp increase over the 23.39% figure from 2013.
The SBA’s 2014 Small Business Procurement Scorecard, which was released today, shows that the government beat its 23% goal for the second year running. It wasn’t all good news, though: the government again failed to meet its WOSB and HUBZone goals.
As June winds down and we head into the last weekend of the month, I hope you are finding time to relax and catch up on your Vitamin D this summer. There was a lot in the news this week, starting with the Supreme Court’s decision to take on the Kingdomware SDVOSB case. I will continue to keep you posted on Kingdomware, but in the meantime, here are some other government contracts stories making news this week.
Is the Department of Veterans Affairs required to prioritize service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (“SDVOSBs”) when it buys supplies and services? That, essentially, will be the question before the Supreme Court when it takes up the case of Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. vs. United States. On June 22, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Kingdomware will end a long-running battle between the VA and various SDVOSBs, which have accused the VA of creating loopholes to avoid a statutory contracting preference for veterans. Hopefully, the Court will get it right. As a matter of policy and law, the underlying decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is fundamentally flawed.