With the summer solstice this weekend we are looking forward to the longest day of the year and enjoying the outdoors. Meanwhile, new developments continue in the world of federal government contracting.
Some articles you may find of interest below include comments on a long awaited reverse auction memo, two stories about deception, and the SBA receiving a nice boost from government funding.
To determine whether ostensible subcontractor affiliation exists between a prime contractor and its subcontractor, the SBA must use the prime contractor’s final proposal revision.
In a recent size appeal decision, the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals overturned an SBA Area Office affiliation determination that did not contemplate an offeror’s final proposal.
A company’s failure to certify itself as a small business on its SAM profile resulted in the elimination of the company from a set-aside competition.
In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that a procuring agency properly excluded the low bidder from award of a small business set-aside contract because the low bidder’s SAM profile stated that it was not a small business under the solicitation’s NAICS code.
As we head into a summer weekend, it is time for our weekly roundup of government contracting news and commentary. This week brings news on size standards, procurement spending, proposed rules and missing guidelines.
One of the first questions a contractor must ask itself before filing a bid protest with the GAO is whether its protest would be timely filed. But as a recent GAO decision highlighted, the answer to that question might not be so clear.
Contrary to a common misconception, a protest is not always timely if filed within 10 days of a debriefing. As one prospective protester learned, if the debriefing is not “required” under applicable law, a GAO protest filed within 10 days of a debriefing might be untimely.
The FAR Council recently proposed amendments to Part 19 regarding large prime contractors’ subcontracting plans. The amendments require, among other things, that a large prime include in its subcontracting plan the “NAICS code and corresponding size standard of each subcontract” that it will award to a small business.
The proposed FAR amendment assumes that large prime contractors are assigning NAICS codes to their subcontracts, and with good reason–the SBA’s regulations require it. In my experience, however, many large primes are not doing so.
The GAO generally will not review an agency’s decision not to accept a company’s unsolicited proposal to the federal government.
As demonstrated in a recent bid protest decision, because one of the GAO’s functions is to promote full and open competition, the GAO ordinarily will not consider a protest contending that an agency should have made a sole source award based on an unsolicited proposal.