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 contractor employment 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 »
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 »
Filing a bid protest based upon allegations that the agency failed to conduct a proper price realism evaluation analysis can be tricky. The reason why government contractors fail in GAO protests is mostly because they find themselves arguing how the agency is supposed to conduct the price realism evaluation. An… 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 »
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 »
Simply Depending on Your Experience as an Incumbent Does Not Get the Win When challenging a government contracting agency’s technical evaluation scores as an incumbent contractor, whether for past performance or overall technical approach, you must be mindful that if you are the incumbent contractor, that status alone does not provide… Read more »
What is the Best Approach to Challenge the Requirements Under FAR 52.219-9? Minimize the Chance of Noncompliance and Contract Termination FAR 52.219-9 small business subcontracting plan requirements are frequently seen in solicitations from the federal government. The underlying reason is to advance opportunities for small businesses in larger contracts. Contractors… Read more »
Whenever government contractors file a bid protest addressing the government cancellation of solicitation, there are certain considerations they must contemplate. For example, in a recent GAO protest, Matter of: TaxSlayer LLC, the firm protested the Government’s cancellation of the solicitation and GAO did not agree with protestor’s arguments. GAO disagreed… Read more »