For a procuring agency, is there anything worse than being schooled on principles of timeliness and fairness by a federal judge?
As the Department of Veterans Affairs found out in a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, there is something that may be worse: being schooled by a federal judge repeatedly quoting from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the 1865 book by Lewis Carroll.
As we begin a new year with important legal ramifications for small businesses, I am pleased to introduce a new SmallGovCon series offering viewpoints on those legal issues from thought leaders throughout the government contracting community.
The new feature, Guest Perspectives, kicks off today with a guest post by Kevin J. Allis, the director of the Native American Contractors Association. The post, titled “Section 811 Stifles Native American Growth,” is well worth a read.
If you are interested in the possibility of contributing to Guest Perspectives, please contact me.
While an eleventh hour agreement avoided the “fiscal cliff,” it did not fully resolve potential spending cuts. The agreement delayed the sequester, but its impacts are still being felt by contractors, particularly by small businesses. These entities are at the end of the planning process, and delaying a resolution only prolongs uncertainty.
For Native contractors, there is little to be happy about, and much that raises significant concerns. The consequences of the uncertainty in the federal contracting environment caused by the still looming possibility of sequestration, coupled with the enormously harmful effects of Section 811 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2010 (“NDAA”), are painting a potentially very dreary picture for these companies and the communities they serve.
VA SDVOSB reconsideration requests were approved in 48% of cases resulting in a decision, according to a GAO report released on Monday.
In the lengthy report, which weighs in at 63 pages, the GAO broadly concludes that the VA CVE has made progress when it comes to the verification of SDVOSBs, but has a ways to go in order for the SDVOSB verification process to be quick, effecient and effective.
This broad conclusion is not in the least bit surprising to anyone who has followed the evolution of the VA SDVOSB verification program. However, the report is also packed with a great deal of interesting information about SDVOSB verification at the VA–including statistics on applications, reconsideration success rates, and more.
Under the SBA affiliation rules, there is no broad exception from affiliation with a non-profit, according to a recent SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals decision.
In Size Appeal of Asklepion Pharmaceuticals, LLC, SBA No. SIZ-5410 (2012), SBA OHA held that the SBA Area Office properly found a company affiliated with several non-profits, causing the company to be ineligible as a small business.
No matter a company’s actual size, the company will be deemed an ineligible large business if it fails to timely respond to a SBA size protest.
Just ask American Blanching Company, which was recently found ineligible for a small business set-aside contract because it did not respond to a SBA size protest within the short size protest response window.
A proposal submitted on behalf of an 8(a) company claimed that the company had performed a $3 million NASA contract even though no such contract existed, according to a recent report issued by the SBA Office of Inspector General. As alleged in the SBA OIG report, the same honesty-challenged 8(a) company claimed to have 33 employees, even though it never had more than two.
Perhaps it is little wonder that the company in question is alleged to have passed through nearly 100% of its work on several 8(a) set-asides to its non-8(a) subcontractor.