The Government Certificate of Competency (SBA COC) Program is regulated by the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 637(b)(7)). After review of the contracting agency’s referral, the SBA issues a written decision to the contracting officer either certifying or not, that one or more of the small businesses are responsible and meet… Read more »
Avoid Costly Mistakes When Submitting 8(a) Joint Venture Past Performance GAO protests continue to surface because of improper past performance evaluation of proposals. In a recent case, GAO sustained a protest because NASA considered the awardee’s past performance. There was no record of actual performance. The problem was that the solicitation stated that NASA would not… Read more »
What Does Ambiguity Mean? Many government contract bidders find the rules of patent ambiguity in solicitations to be very confusing. In many cases, they see the problem when filing a post-award bid protest. The recent decision at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit illustrates how important it… Read more »
A common dispute arises in federal government contracting as to whether a term extension for a General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule Contract FSS task order constitutes a new contract. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on this very issue in a recent case. The… Read more »
One reason why bid protests are successful is when the contractor shows that the failure to conduct lawful discussions under FAR 15.306 GAO looks at these issues very carefully. The underlying principle of having meaningful discussions is the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA). Each bidder is entitled to its proposal being… Read more »
Often, government contracting agencies take corrective action when contractors file a GAO protest. Taking corrective action mainly takes away jurisdiction from the court to hear the case. A recent GAO protest case illustrates mistakes made in a GAO protest for corrective action. In that bid protest, the protestor argued that after… Read more »
Sometimes when the US Court of Federal Claims rules adversely on a motion for judgment upon the administrative record in a bid protest, you can appeal the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. There are many cases where the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has… Read more »
Protesting an agency’s technical proposal evaluation and management evaluation factors, and ultimate source selection decision can be problematic you do not show that the Source Selection Board acted unreasonably or failed to follow the RFP requirements. Technical Proposal Evaluation of Management Factors In a recent GAO protest, for example, the… Read more »
Lawyers Appealing from COFC Federal Claims Protest Decisions to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit In a recent case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a bid protest decision from the Court of Federal Claims because the appellant had failed to first exhaust… Read more »
When it comes to responding to federal government proposals, agencies must be clear on what they want the general public to bid on. The issue of the meeting the ambiguous definition often comes up in a government bid protest. The definition of ambiguous in a government RFP occurs then two… Read more »