SBA has issued a final rule that should help small businesses demonstrate their past performance more easily. Perhaps most importantly, the rule will allow for a small business to receive a written performance record, similar to CPARS, showing its performance as a subcontractor to a large business prime. The new rule will also allow a small business to better utilize its past performance that it carried out as a member of a joint venture.
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Congress Requires Large Primes to Provide Past Performance Reviews to Small Subcontractors–And Agencies to Consider Them
Breaking into the federal government contracting marketplace can be challenging, and many small businesses choose to start as subcontractors. But when those companies later bid on prime contracts, they sometimes find that they cannot get past performance reviews for their subcontract work, or that the government won’t consider such reviews.
Now, Congress has stepped in. A provision in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act will require large prime contractors to provide small businesses with past performance reviews in certain cases, and will require agencies to consider them.
Continue readingRoom for Improvement: GAO Reviews Agency Oversight of Small Business Subcontracting Plans
Recently, GAO published a report on small business subcontracting plan compliance, concluding that agency oversight of these plans need improvement.
Continue readingRegulatory Update: SBA Moves to Clean Up Small Disadvantaged Business Rules
Last month, the SBA moved to edit its regulations, taking a red pen to its current rules governing Small Disadvantaged Businesses (or SDBs), as described in the Federal Register.
This post will highlight what the new rule will mean for current SDBs—and how businesses can become eligible for SDB subcontractor status under the new rule. While the SDB program is still alive and kicking, the rules will be simplified to eliminate a lot of language that is simply no longer applicable.
Continue readingCAAC Recommends Class Deviation to Accelerate Payments to Small Business Contractors
In the ongoing effort to minimize the effects of COVID-19, the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council (CAAC) has recommended that agencies implement a class deviation to accelerate payments to small business prime contractors to prime contractors with small business subcontractors.
Continue readingSBA Clarifies Subcontracting Plan Rules
The SBA recently issued a final rule concerning numerous aspects of small business contracting. In previous posts, we wrote about a few parts of the rule, including changes to the limitations on subcontracting.
The new rule also clarifies some important facets of the rules governing subcontracting plans.
Continue readingMiscalculation of Subcontracting Percentage Leads to Sustained Protest
Agencies and contractors must do their math right (even fractions) when evaluating proposals against solicitation terms, and GAO will call them on it if they don’t.
GAO recently sustained a protest where an agency improperly calculated a small business subcontracting percentage by including the prime contractor’s fee as part of the subcontracted costs when the fee shouldn’t have been included.
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