OCI Organizational Conflict of Interest FAR Guidance Hiring of Former Government Officials If your company hires a former government official, it can be disqualified from a competition based upon the appearance of impropriety which is created by the hire. There is no requirement for an actual impropriety to be shown in… Read more »
Filing Pre-Award GAO Protests for Overly Restrictive RFP Requirements As a CEO, you wonder how you can overcome government RFPs with overly restrictive RFP requirements. Whether intentional or not, government contracting agencies sometimes post RFP’s that appear to be too restrictive. Your task is to understand how to overcome this… Read more »
Non responsive bid proposals occur when the contracting agency excludes your bid because it materially failed to follow the solicitation requirements. Unless your mistake was minimal and immaterial, GAO tends to rule that the Agency made a reasonable decision. However, there are situations where agency exclusions were unreasonable. What happens in… Read more »
Avoid Getting Your Case Dismissed on Appeal. A contracting officer’s final decision in federal government contracting carries a lot of weight. For example, a contracting officer is the final authority for approving or denying construction claims or requests for equitable adjustments. Small business contractor lawyers and non-government contracting attorneys often… Read more »
By: Leanna Ajour, Esq., California & Colorado Attorney 8(a) Certification Consultants: The Five-Finger Checklist for selecting an 8(a) Certification Consultant: 1) Work with an 8(a) Consultant that not only understands the requirements of the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development Program, but wants you to understand the requirements, as… Read more »
Under the requirements to intervene in a bid protest or some other case at the United States Court of Federal Claims. Avoid wasting money on procedural disputes and focus on the merits of the case. In rare circumstances, the court may deny your motion to intervene in a bid protest… Read more »
What is The Purpose of Bid Proposal Evaluation Criteria? The purpose of the government’s proposal evaluation criteria is to give the agency’s evaluation team a way to determine which company has submitted a response to a solicitation that best meets the Government’s stated needs. Your contract evaluation criteria also results… Read more »
A bad past performance evaluation rating can impact your overall chances of getting the ultimate award in government contracting. Many contractors file a bid protest addressing how the government applied its contractor past performance evaluation criteria but fall short of a viable strategy for doing so. The rationale for Performance… Read more »
Litigating bid protest for lack of meaningful discussions when bidding with the federal government is still an ongoing problem. When contractors receive debriefings, they sometimes find that discussions held were far from meaningful. A bid protest alleging lack of meaningful discussions must be approached carefully since many agencies attempt to… Read more »
Contract Claims Certification and Appeals Requirements When reviewing the Contract Disputes Act certification requirements for litigation and appeals, a costly mistake made by government contractors is to submit a claim against the government but not follow the claim certification requirements of the Act. Another mistake is to file a government… Read more »