The Army did not violate the Competition in Contracting Act by soliciting only three local sources for a simplified acquisition to be performed outside of the United States.
In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO explained that under the circumstances, the Army was not required to publish notice of the procurement on the FedBizOpps website, and satisfied the competition requirements by seeking quotations from three local sources.
I am back from a day-long road trip to Wichita, where I gave a presentation on communications between industry and contracting officials.
It was great to spend the morning meeting with so many local government contractors. A big “thank you” to Terri Bennett, Jason Porch, Scott Knapp, and Lisa Haggard of the Kansas PTAC, as well as Marcia Stevens and the Kansas SBDC, for organizing the event. And of course, extra thanks to the contractors and others who attended the session and asked great questions.
If you’re a Kansas government contractor but weren’t able to make it to yesterday’s event, I have good news. In June, I will be presenting the same seminar in Overland Park. Details coming soon.
The GAO will not reconsider a bid protest that has been litigated in the Court of Federal Claims and affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO dismissed a protest challenging the Department of Labor’s decision to set aside two solicitations for small businesses, because the federal courts had already ruled that the set-asides were appropriate.
A woman does not need to provide the SBA with “smoking gun” evidence of bias in order to be considered socially disadvantaged for purposes of her company’s application to the 8(a) program.
In a recent decision, the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals sharply criticized the SBA’s evaluation of a woman-owned small business’s 8(a) application, holding that the SBA had improperly discounted evidence of bias, needlessly demanded that the woman provide irrelevant details, and made several other errors.
Moving SDVOSB verification from the VA to the SBA would save approximately $5 million annually, according to a recent cost estimate issued by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
The CBO concludes that implementing the Improving Opportunities for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Act of 2013 would save money because the SBA would be able to take advantage of systems already in place for other certification programs. The CBO estimate may reignite debate over the potential transfer of the SDVOSB verification program from the VA to the SBA.
To regular SmallGovCon readers this may seem obvious, but protesters keep doing it, so it deserves a post.
By “it,” I mean filing small business size challenges as part of GAO bid protests. As demonstrated once again in a recent GAO bid protest decision, the GAO typically lacks jurisdiction over size challenges, which must be filed with the SBA.
A company on the losing end of a SBA size protest can ask the SBA Area Office that issued the decision to consider reopening the size determination case. However, the 15-day window in which to file a size appeal with the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals is not extended by virtue of a request to reopen.
In a recent decision, SBA OHA dismissed a size appeal as untimely, holding that the 15-day appeals window begins upon the receipt of the size determination–not upon the SBA Area Office’s refusal to reopen the size determination.