Recently, GAO published a report on small business subcontracting plan compliance, concluding that agency oversight of these plans need improvement.
Continue readingTag Archives: Subcontracting Plans
Clean-Up on Aisle “FAR”: Joint Venture and Subcontracting Plan Rules Get Modernized
Joint ventures and small business subcontracting are two issues near and dear to the hearts of many small business federal contractors. Well, the Federal Acquisition Regulation will soon be updated with respect to both of these topics. The new rules will align with SBA’s rules and remove any inconsistencies. Let’s dive in!
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the SDB program is still alive and kicking, the rules will be simplified to eliminate a lot of language that is simply no longer applicable.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 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.
Continue readingOfferor Provides Only First Pages of Teaming Agreements, Gets “Marginal” Score
An offeror provided a procuring agency with only the first pages of its teaming agreements with proposed subcontractors–and received a “Marginal” score on the small business participation factor as a result.
In a recent decision, the Court of Federal Claims held that the agency reasonably downgraded the offeror for failing to provide its entire teaming agreements, saying that the agency correctly determined that it was unable to determine what work would be performed by the subcontractors.
Continue readingGAO: Subcontracting Plan Required by Solicitation Must be in Proposal
It’s a basic tenet of government contracting that a contractor must comply with the requirements of an agency solicitation. Those are the rules of the game. But in practice, there can be some tricky calls. For instance, what if a solicitation includes a requirement that appears to conflict with the FAR? Does an offeror still have to comply?
A recent GAO decision explored this situation in the context of a solicitation’s requirement for subcontracting plans.