To effectively respond to, or negotiate the government’s suspension or debarment actions under FAR 9.4, it is important for contractors to understand the underlying legal and policy principles when doing business with the government. Without understanding the reasons for the rule, a contractor will almost always fail to target the… Read more »
Becoming a bid protest intervenor is usually pretty simple. However, there are many cases where government contractors believed that the would become a bid protest intervenor but quickly found out that they were really not an interested party with legal standing to intervene in the protest. Many contractors attempt to… Read more »
HUBZone Definition The HUBZone Program (Historically Underutilized Business Zone) is a United States Small Business Administration (SBA) program that provides some level of government contracting preferences for small company owners that operate their principle place of business in a designated consensus track and also provide jobs to employees who live in… Read more »
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals decided a bid protest case where the issue was whether the agency properly referred the offeror’s technical responsibility decision to the Small Business Administration for a COC Certificate of Competency review. This has become a common dispute in bid protest appeal cases. As a… Read more »
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a recent case decided the issue of agency corrective action and how it impacts the pre-award decision and post-award decision process. In this case, the appellant appealed the Court of Federal Claim’s decision that the United States Transportation Command decision to… Read more »
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 »