I was on the road during the latter half of last week–first a stop in Columbia, Missouri for a workshop with the Missouri PTAC, and then on to the greater Chicago area, where I gave a presentation at a procurement conference. My travels prevented me from getting SmallGovCon Week In Review posted on its usual Friday date, so here is a special Monday morning edition of government contracting news and commentary.
Tag Archives: GSA
SmallGovCon Week In Review: July 13 – 17, 2015
After doubling up the Week In Review last Friday, we are back to our regular one-per-week format. Today, SmallGovCon Week In Review features stories about the GAO’s hard-hitting report on the Buy Indian program, a lengthy prison sentence for bribery of a VA official, the beginning of the fourth quarter “spending season,” and much more.
Task Order Labor Categories Don’t Match Schedule Contract; GAO Sustains Protest
The GAO sustained a protest of the award of a GSA Schedule task order because the labor categories awarded under the task order were outside the scope of the awardee’s underlying GSA Schedule contract.
In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that the awardee’s GSA Schedule labor category–management analyst–did not align with the task order solicitation’s requirement for research analysts, general consultants, and legal administrative specialists. As a result, the task order award was improper.
GSA Contractor Team Arrangement: Single-SIN Restriction Was Appropriate
A procuring agency reasonably required all members of a SDVOSB set-aside GSA Contractor Team Arrangement to possess a certain Federal Supply Schedule contract and Special Item Number.
In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that restricting CTAs to holders of a certain Schedule and SIN was appropriate because all of the supplies to be procured fell within the identified Schedule and SIN.
SBA OHA: No Automatic Size Recertifications For GSA Schedule Task Orders
Submitting a proposal for a GSA Schedule task order does not result in an automatic recertification of the offeror’s size.
In a recent size appeal decision, the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals rejected the argument that an offeror recertifies its size merely by submitting a proposal for a GSA task order. Instead, a firm’s size for purposes of a GSA Schedule task order competition is determined based on the underlying GSA Schedule contract, unless the procuring agency requires recertification for the task order.
Task Order Procurement Decision Not Protestable, Says Federal Court
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims lacks jurisdiction to hear a challenge to an agency’s decision to procure services by way of a task-order competition under a government-wide acquisition contract.
In MORI Associates, Inc., No. 13-671C (2013), the Court held that it lacked authority to consider whether an agency’s decision to procure services by way of a task order competition under a GWAC–rather than under the GSA Schedule–was improper.
Agency Misreads Proposal; Contractor Wins GAO Bid Protest
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts,” said the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
In a recently published bid protest decision, the GAO held that a procuring agency was not entitled to its own facts when it came to the contents of the protester’s proposal. Because the proposal contained the very items the agency claimed were missing, the GAO sustained the protest.