You Can Avoid Common Mistakes and Spending Unnecessary Legal Fees By Understanding the SBA and Government Certificate of Competency (COC) Process. The SBA’s COC Program is governed by the Small Business Act, 15 USC 37(b); 13 CFR 125.5 and FAR Part 19.6. A Government Certificate of Competency is a written document from… Read more »
In a recent GAO bid protest decision, HGS Engineering, Inc.; American Commercial Group, Inc. Challenging the government’s best value procurement decision, GAO agreed with the agency’s source selection decision. The protestors challenged the agency’s decision that the awardee’s proposal represented the best value to the government. These bid protest challenges,… Read more »
Federal contractors are being caught with submitting bids with a contractor letter of intent to hire that have no substance. Getting the proper guidance on this issue can make the difference between getting the contract or somehow getting to the point where there is a false representation. The latter can… Read more »
When an agency decides to award sole source contracts, a FAR 6.303 Justification and Approval (J&A) is required as a check and balance to the Competition in Contracting Act requirement that federal contracting agencies must resort to full and open competition procurements. Many contractors often want to challenge the agency’s… Read more »
Small businesses involved in government contracting find themselves excluded from opportunities because of FAR sole source justification contracts. Government contract law allows federal agencies the opportunity to award sole source contracts, so long as the explanation is reasonable and does not violate other regulations. Do Government Sole Source Contracting Justifications Violate… Read more »
After 1997, FAR competitive range requirements are somewhat different. Before, the Agency had to consider whether your proposal stood a reasonable chance of award. However, FAR § 15.306(c)(1) a government contracting agency can exclude your proposal from the competitive range if it is not rated as one of “most highly… Read more »
Government Evaluations of PPIRS Not Always Reasonable Government contractors often contend that agencies do not adequately review the information found in the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS). However, challenging the agency’s evaluation in a bid protest can be a challenge if you do not properly present the legal argument…. Read more »
Protesters often file bid protests challenge a government contracting agency’s past performance evaluation confidence ratings of their proposals. Common concerns include the agency’s assignment of an unsatisfactory past confidence ratings. Agencies often find that your past performance examples or references were not relevant. This is where the initial controversy begins…. Read more »
Quite a few federal contractors find themselves disappointed in GAO’s protest decision that agrees with the agency’s evaluation decision. Protesting technically unacceptable proposal decisions in a GAO protest can be disappointing if contractors fail to apply the proper legal analysis in a bid protest. When writing your technical proposal, merely… Read more »
Understand the Rules When You Allege Government Contract Bundling As a small business, you may often wonder whether the government contracting agency is unlawfully engaging in bundling their contracts. Others may wonder whether there is anything they can do about it. The first thing that small businesses must do is… Read more »