SBA OIG All Small Mentor-Protégé Program Evaluation Reveals Concerns and Suggests Improvements

In 2016, SBA established the All Small Mentor-Protégé Program, or ASMPP, enabling mentors of any size to provide business development assistance to small protégé businesses to enhance the protégé’s ability to compete for federal contracts. Since then, the ASMPP has served as a powerful tool for many businesses and, as of August 1, there were 885 active mentor-protégé agreements.

Recently, however, the SBA’s Office of the Inspector General released a report highlighting some opportunities to improve the program and recommending SBA take additional steps to ensure compliance with the program’s requirements.

Continue reading

5 Things You Should Know: Joint Ventures

Editor’s note: For more information, check out our updated post on Joint Ventures.

In the age of consolidated contracts and increased competition, small business federal contractors are searching for a way to improve their odds of winning the next opportunity. One of the most important tools for doing so is to form a joint venture.

Here are five things you should know about small business joint ventures:

Continue reading

Failure to Update Joint Venture Agreement Costs Mentor-Protégé SDVOSB JV a Contract

Updating your joint venture agreement is essential to maintaining compliance with SBA’s regulations and failing to update could cost you contracts.

In Stacqme, LLC, SBA No. SIZ-5976 (Dec. 10, 2018), the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals held that a mentor-protege joint venture’s failure to update its JV agreement caused the agreement to be non-compliant with the SBA’s rules, and meant that the joint venture was ineligible for an SDVOSB set-aside contract.

Continue reading

Government Contracts Joint Ventures: Our New Handbook is Now Available

I am excited to announce the publication of Government Contracts Joint Ventures, the first in a new series of new government contracting guides we’re calling “Koprince Law LLC GovCon Handbooks.”  Packed with easy-to-understand examples and written in plain English, Government Contracts Joint Ventures should help you maximize your understanding of this important option for pursuing federal contracts.

What does the Handbook contain?  I’m glad you asked.

Continue reading

5 Things You Should Know: All Small Mentor-Protege Program

Editor’s note: For more information, check out our updated post on SBA’s Mentor-Protégé Program.

In late 2016, the SBA rolled out a fantastic tool to help small business grow in the marketplace.

Here are five things you should know about the SBA All Small Mentor-Protégé Program:

Continue reading

Joint Venture Past Performance: Agency Properly Considered JV Members’ “Percentage Of Effort”

In evaluating a WOSB joint venture’s past performance, the procuring agency considered each joint venture member’s contemplated percentage of effort for the solicitation’s scope of work, and assigned the joint venture past performance ratings based on which member was responsible for particular past performance.

The GAO held that the agency had the discretion to evaluate joint venture past performance in this manner–although it is unclear whether a relatively new SBA regulation (which apparently didn’t apply to the solicitation) would have affected the outcome.

Continue reading

8(a) Protege Not Entitled To Mentor-Protege JV’s Past Performance

A former 8(a) protege was not automatically entitled to take advantage of the past performance it obtained as part of a mentor-protege joint venture, in a case where the former mentor would not be involved in the new contract.

In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that a procuring agency erred by crediting the protege with the joint venture’s past performance without considering the extent to which that past performance relied on the mentor–and the extent to which the mentor’s absence under the new solicitation might impact the relevance of the past performance as applied to the new work.

Continue reading